THE  EMSRESS  EUGENIE 


LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 

Mrs.    MacKinley   Helm 


\  I 


THE     EMPRESS     EUGENIE. 

After  Winterhalter. 
Collection :     Augustin  Risahgitz. 


THE    LIFE   OF 
THE  EMPRESS  EUGENIE 


BY 


JANE    T.    STODDART      k  , 

AUTHOR   OF 
"THE    EARL   OF    ROSEBERY,    K.G." 


WITH    SIX    ILLUSTRATIONS   IN    PHOTOGRAVURE 


THIRD  EDITION 


E.    P.    DUTTON    &   CO. 

31    WEST   TWENTY-THIRD    STREET 

NEW   YORK 


PKINTKD    IN    ENGLAND    BV 

WILLIAM    ERENDON    AND    SON.    LTD. 

fLYMOLTH 


PREFACE 

FOR  the  general  outline  of  events  under  the 
Second  Empire,  I  have  found  the  seven 
volumes  of  M.  Pierre  de  la  Gorce  especially  helpful. 
References  to  his  Histoire  du  Second  Empire  are 
acknowledged  in  the  text. 

Among  recently  published  memoirs  the  most 
useful  have  been  the  Bernstorff  papers,  and  Count 
von  Hubner's  Neuf  Ans  de  Souvenirs  d'un  Am- 
bassadeur  d'Autriche  a  Paris."  Count  von  Hiibner 
mentions  several  incidents  which  are  missed  by  all 
other  writers  on  the  Empress's  marriage.  He  was 
the  first  public  man  to  hear  of  the  engagement. 
Writing  on  7  January,  1853,  he  says:  "  Ce  soir, 
chez  la  princesse  de  Lieven,  on  me  chuchote  a 
l'oreille  que  Mademoiselle  de  Monti  jo  pourrait  bien 
devenir  imperatrice." 

The  famous  ball  at  the  Tuileries  on  12  January, 
1853,  has  been  described  by  numerous  pens,  but  the 
Austrian  diplomatist  alone  records  the  chief  event 
of  the  evening.  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo  entered 
the  ballroom  on  the  arm  of  her  old  friend  James 
Rothschild,  whose  son  followed  with  the  elder 
Countess.  As  the  ladies  were  about  to  take  their 
seats  on   the   bench  appropriated  to   the  wives  of 


Preface 

ministers,  Madame  Drouyn  de  Lhuys  stepped  for- 
ward, and  told  them  that  these  places  were  reserved. 
Napoleon,  who  had  seen  the  rebuff,  hurried  to  the 
Spanish  ladies,  and  led  them  to  chairs  next  the 
members  of  his  own  family.  "  The  spectators,"  says 
Count  von  Hiibner,  "  understood  the  full  meaning  of 
the  incident."  "  On  peut  dire  qu'a  ce  bal  a  eu  lieu 
la  declaration  de  mariage." 

From  the  list  of  authorities  which  follows  I 
have  omitted  [many  works  which  have  been 
indirectly  helpful.  Had  these  been  added,  the 
list  might  easily  have  been  made  twice  as  long. 
I  have  omitted  also  all  reference  to  the  ephemeral 
sources  in  which  so  much  important  material 
must  be  sought,  as  these  cannot  easily  be  classi- 
fied. French  newspapers  continue  to  publish, 
from  time  to  time,  articles  which  no  student  of 
the  Second  Empire  can  afford  to  neglect.  With- 
in recent  weeks,  for  example,  the  Gaulois  has 
printed  an  article  on  "  The  Friends  of  the  Prince 
Imperial"  and  another  on  the  schemes  of  French 
statesmen  in  1870  to  secure  an  alliance  with  Austria 
or  Italy. 

I  gladly  acknowledge  the  help  received  from  many 
books  and  pamphlets  which  describe  the  Empress's 
summer  progresses  with  her  husband.  The  best  of 
these  is  the  illustrated  volume  of  A.  Marc,  on  the 
journey  of  i860.  Other  writers  who  deserve  men- 
tion are  C.  L.  Cormont,  for  the  journey  to  Auvergne, 
F.  Ribeyre,  for  the  Empress's  voyage  to  the  East, 
and  H.  Villa,  for  the  Orleans  visit  of  1868. 


IV 


Preface 

I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  call  attention 
in  detail  to  the  defamatory  pamphlets  in  French, 
German,  and  Italian,  most  of  which  date  from  the 
period  of  the  Franco- Prussian  War.  The  writers, 
with  all  their  malice,  have  not  succeeded  in  fasten- 
ing any  personal  charge  upon  Napoleon's  consort, 
and  most  of  them  display  a  surprising  ignorance  of 
the  facts  of  her  career. 

For  valuable  suggestions  made  while  the  book 
was  passing  through  the  press,  I  am  indebted  to 
Count  Serge  Fleury,  grandson  of  General  Fleury, 
the  distinguished  cavalry  leader,  whose  name  occurs 
so  frequently  in  these  pages. 

The  genealogies  which  precede  the  Index  have 
been  kindly  supplied  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Bulloch. 

J.  T.  S. 


LIST   OF    AUTHORITIES 


About,  E 
Adam,  Madame 


m 


Ashley,  Hon.  A. 


Nouvclles  et  Souvenirs. 

Mes  Souvenirs  et  nos  Idees  avant  1870. 

Afes  Illusions  et  nos  Soujfrances  pendant 

le  Siege  de  Paris. 
Life  of  Lord  Palmerston. 


Barail,  F.  C.  du    . 
Barrot,  Odilon 
Bavoux,  E. 
Bernstorff,  A.  von 
Beslay,  C. 
Beslay,  F. 
Besson,  Bishop 

>>  >j 

Beust,  Count  von 
Bingham,  Hon.  D.  H. 
Bismarck,  Prince  . 
Bouchot,  H.   . 
Bouclon,  A.  de 
Bridier,  L. 
Broglie,  le  Due  DE 
Brun,  Pierre 
Bulloch,  J.  M. 
Busch,  Moritz 


Mes  Souvenirs. 

Memoires  Posthumes. 

Une  Sceur  de  Charite. 

Im  Kampfe  filr  Preussens  Ehre. 

Mes  Souvenirs. 

Lacordaire :  sa    Vie,  ses  CEuvres.^ 

La    Vie  du  Cardinal  de  Bonnechose. 

La    Vie  du  Cardinal  Mathieu. 

Memoirs. 

The  Marriages  of  the  Bonapartes. 

Memoirs,  Letters  to  his    Wife,  etc. 

Les  Elegances  du  Second  Empire. 

La    Vie  du  R.  P.  Ravignan. 

Une  Famille  francaise  ;  les  De  Lesseps. 

Souvenirs. 

Henri  Beyle  (Stendhal). 

The  Family  of  Kirkpatrick. 

Tagebuchb  latter. 


Camp,  Maxime  du  .     Literary  Recollections. 

Canrobert,  le  Marechal    Souvenirs. 

Carette,  Madame  .         .     My  Mistress,  the  Empress  Euginie. 
Cassagnac,  Granier  de  .     Souvenirs. 

vii 


List  of  Authorities 


Cassk,  Baron  du    .         .     Souvenirs  d'un   Aide-de-Camp  du   Roi 

Jerome. 
Castellane,  le  Marechal  de    Journal  (1804-62). 
Castille,  H.   .         .         .     Portraits  Politiques. 
Chambrier,  James  de     .     La  Cour  et  la  Societe  du  Second  Empire. 
Chapelle,  Alfred  de  la     Posthumous   Works  of  Napoleon  III. 
Claretie,  Jules      .         .     Histoire  de  la  Rivolution  de  1870-71. 

Octave  Feuillet.  1 

.     Stendhal  et  ses  Amis. 


cordier,  h.    . 

Darimon,  Alfred 
»  » 

>»  ji 

Deleage,  P.    . 

DOUDAN,    X.       . 

Ducrot,  A.  A. 
Dufour,  Theophile 
Dupanloup,  Bishop 
»>  » 


.     A   Travers  une  Rivolution. 

.     Notes  pour  servir   h   r histoire    de   la 

guerre  de  1870. 
.     L' Histoire  d'un  Jour. 

Trois  Mois  chez  les  Zoulous. 
-     Milanges  et  Lettres. 
.     La    Vie  militaire  du   Giniral  Ducrot. 
.     Lettres  a  Quinet  pendant  I 'Empire. 
.     Lettres   Choisies. 
.    Journal  In  time. 


Evans,  Dr.  T.  W. 


Memoirs. 


Fagan,  L. 

Falloux,  le  Comte  de 


II 


Favre,  Jules 


11 


Life  of  Panizzi. 

Mimoires  dun  Royaliste. 

Life  of  Madame  Swetchine. 

Jules  Favre  et  le  Comte  de  Bismarck. 

Conferences  et  Milanges. 
Ferronnays,  Marquise  de  la     Mimoires. 
Filon,  Augustin     .         .     Merimie  et  ses  Amis. 
Fitzmaurice,  Lord  E.    .     Life  of  Earl  Granville. 
Flaubert,  G.  .         .     Correspondance. 

Fleury,  Le  General  Comte    Souvenirs. 
Forster,  John        .         .      Walter  Savage  Landor. 
Foulon,  le  Cardinal     .     Histoire  de  la   Vie  de  Mgr.  Darboy. 


Gavard,  Charles 


Un  Diplomate  a  Londres. 


Vlll 


List  of  Authorities 


Gramont,  le  Due  DE 
Greville,  Charles 


La  France  el  la  Prusse  avant  la  Guerre. 
The   Greville  Memoirs. 


Herisson,  le  Comte  d' 


Hanotaux,  G.  .         .     Histoire  de  la  France  Contemporaine. 

Haussmann,  G.   E.  .     Memoires  du  Baron  Haussmann. 

Haussonville,  le  Comte  d'  Mon  Journal  pendant  la  Guerre  (puolie 

par  son  Fils). 

Lacordaire. 

Souvenirs  d'un  Officier  d' Ordonnance. 

Nouveau  Journal. 

Souvenirs  Intimes. 

Le  Prince  Lmpirial. 

Les  Confessions. 

Souvenirs  de  Jeunesse. 

Neuf  Ans  de  Souvenirs. 


»> 


>> 


Houssaye,  Arsene 


» 


Hubner,  Count  von 


Irving,  Washington 


Life  and  Letters  of  Washington  Lrving. 


Janze,  Alix  de        .  .     Berryer ;  Souvenirs  Intimes. 

Jerrold,  VV.  Blanchard     Life  of  Napoleon  III. 


KlRKPATRICK 


Lacordaire 


»> 


Lano,  Pierre  de    . 
Lavalette,   le   Marquis 

de 
Lengle,  Paul 
Lennox,  Lord  VV.  P. 
Lesseps,  F.  de 
Loli£e,  F. 
Loudon,  Eugene    . 

McDowall,  VV. 
Magen,  H. 


Chronicles  of  the  Kirkpatrick  Family. 

Correspondance   du    R.    P.    Lacordaire 

avec  Madame  Swetchine. 
Lettres  inidites. 
Le  Secret  d'un  Empire. 
Les  Etablissements  de  Bienfaisance  sous 

le  Patronage  de  I'Imperatrice. 
Le  Neveu  des  Bonaparte. 
Celebrities  I  Have  Known. 
Souvenirs  de  Quarante  Ans. 
Les  Femmes  du  Second  Empire. 
Le  Journal  de  Fidus. 

History  of  the  Burgh  of  Dumfries. 
Histoire  du  Second  Empire. 

ix 


List  of  Authorities 


Martin,   Sir    Theodore 
Martinet  A. 
Maugny,  le  Comte  de  . 
Maupas,  C.  E.  de  . 
Mazade,  Charles  de 
Merimee,  Prosper  . 


»j 


>> 


Michel,  F. 
Michel,  G. 

Ollivier,  E. 


Life  of  the  Prince  Consort. 

Le  Prince  Impirial. 

Souvenirs  du  Second  Empire. 

Me'moires  sur  le  Second  Empire. 

Monsieur  Thiers. 

Letters  to  Panizzi. 

Lettres  a  une  Lnconnue. 

Lettres  inedites. 

Les  Ecossais  en  France. 

Leon  Say ;  sa   Vie. 

V Empire  Liberal. 


Paterson,  Nathaniel,  D.D.  Memoirs  and  Letters  to  his  Family. 


Perreyve,  Henri   . 
Persigny,  Fialin  de 
Pinard,  Ernest 
Poschinger,  H.  von 


Randon,  le  Marechal 
Rebell,  H. 

Renan,  E. 

Ricard,  L.  Xavier  de 
Richard,  Jules 
Rochefort,  Henri 
Roumania,  Charles  of 


.     Lettres  de  PAbb6  Perreyve. 
.     Me'moires. 
.    Journal. 

.     Furst  Bismarck    und   die   Diplomaten 
1852-90. 

Bismarck  Portefeuille. 

Memoires. 

Les  Lnspiratrices  de   Balzac,  Stendhal, 

Merimee. 
Correspondance  avec  M.  Berthelot. 
Feuilles  ditachees. 
Autour  des  Bonaparte. 
Le  Bonapartisme  sous  la  Republique. 
Les  Aventures  de  ma   Vie. 
Aus    dem    Leben     Konig    Karls     von 

Rumdnien. 


Saint-Amand,  Imbert  de     Louis  Napoleon  and  Mademoiselle  de 

Montijo. 
,,  „  La  Cour  du  Second  Empire. 

,,  „  La  France  et  VLtalie,   1859. 

,,  ,,  Le  Regne  de  Napoleon  ILL. 


List  of  Authorities 


Saint- Am  and,  Imbert  de 
Saint-Hilaire,  J.  B.  de 
Saint-Valry,  Gaston  de 
Sand,  George 


Segur,  Anatole  de 
Simon,  Jules  . 

>>  >) 

Simpson,  Robert     . 
Sorel,  Albert 

Stendhal 


LAbbe  Deguerry,  Cure  de  la  Madeleine 

Victor  Cousin :  sa    Vie. 

Souvenirs. 

Impressions  et  Souvenirs. 

Correspondance. 

Malgretout. 

Souvenirs  et  Recits  d'un  Frcre. 

Souvenirs  du   Quatre  Septembre. 

Le  Soir  de  ma  Journie. 

Traditions  of  the  Covenanters. 

Histoire    diplomatique     de     la    guerre 

Franco- A  llemande. 
Lettres  Intimes. 


Taine,  H. 

Tascher  de  la  Pagerie, 

Countess 
Thiers,  Louis  Adolphe  . 
Ticknor,  George  . 

Tourneux,  Maurice 
Trochu,  Le  General     . 
Tschudi,  Clara 
Tuileries 


H.  Taine :  sa  Vie  et  sa  Correspondance. 
Mon  Si  jour  aux  Tuileries. 

Notes  et  Souvenirs. 

Life,    Letters,  and  Journals  oj    George 

Ticknor. 
Prosper  Mirimee. 
CEuvres  Posthumes. 
The  Empress  Eugenie. 
Papiers  Secrets  des   Tuileries. 


Vallery  Radot,  R. 
Vandam,  A.  D. 
Veuillot,  E.  . 
Veuillot,  Louis 


Life  of  Pasteur. 

An  Englishman  in  Paris. 

Louis    Veuillot. 

Correspondance. 

.]  ft! hinges. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

SCOTTISH   AND   SPANISH   ANCESTRY   OF  THE   EMPRESS 

PAGE 

The  Dumfries-shire  Kirkpatricks — The  Kirkpatricks  and  Old  Mortality 
— William  Kirkpatrick  of  Malaga — Spanish  ancestry  of  the 
Empress — Her  father  and  mother — The  Countess  of  Montijo — 
Prosper  Merim6e — Granada — The  birth  of  Eugenie  I 

CHAPTER  II 

Eugenie's  girlhood 

Her  childhood  in  Spain — Early  years  in  Paris — Stendhal  and  Merimee 
— Death  of  Eugenie's  father — Louis  Napoleon — His  projects  of 
marriage — The  hunting  parties  at  Compiegne — Eugenie  at  Court 
— First  rumours  of  the  engagement 18 

CHAPTER   III 

THE   IMPERIAL  MARRIAGE 

The  Imperial  engagement  made  public — English  comments — The 
Emperor's  speech — Popularity  of  the  marriage — The  civil  wed- 
ding— The  ceremony  at  Notre  Dame 43 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE   YOUNG   WIFE 

Eugenie's  bridal  triumph — The  Crimean  War — Queen  Victoria  and 
the  Empress  in  1855 — The  Empress  at  Windsor — Queen  Victoria's 
return  visit  to  Paris — The  cradle  at  the  Tuileries — The  christen- 
ing at  Notre  Dame — The  Golden  Rom-  .  .  .  .  .66 

xiii 


Contents 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  EMPRESS  AND  HER  COURT 

PAGE 

The  homes  of  the  Empress — Spiritualism  at  the  Tuileries — The  great 
balls — Masked  dances — The  "Mondays  of  the  Empress" — 
Orsini's  crime      ..........     90 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE   EMPRESS  AND   HER  COURT — continued 

The  Cherbourg  fetes — Crinolines  at  Cherbourg — The  tour  in  Brittany 
— The  Empress  and  Louis  Veuillot — The  Italian  war — Eugenie's 
first  Regency — Foreign  women  at  Court — Countess  Castiglione — 
Princess  de  Metternich — Pepa — Childhood  of  the  Prince  Imperial   1 1 2 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE   EMPRESS  AND   THE   PEOPLE 

Eugenie  as  traveller — Among  the  Alps — Algeria — Death  of  the 
Duchess  of  Alba — The  Empress  and  Bishop  Dupanloup — Visit 
to  Scotland — Eugenie  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow — In  the  hospital 
at  Clermont — The  Empress  as  Churchwoman — Home  troubles — 
The  Empress  and  Prince  Napoleon — With  the  cholera  patients 
at  Amiens 141 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  EMPRESS  IN  THE   DECLINING   REIGN   (1867-1869) 

Paris  in  the  Exhibition  year — The  last  season  at  Compiegne — Inter- 
vention in  politics — Home  life  of  Eugenie — Her  leadership  of 
fashion — Visit  to  Egypt  in  1869 164 

CHAPTER   IX 

THE   EMPRESS  AND   HER  CHARITIES    .  .  .189 

CHAPTER  X 

THE    EMPRESS   AND   THE   WAR   OF   187O 

The  deceptive  calm  —  "Malgretout" — Causes  of  the  war — Was 
Eugenie  to  blame  ? — Her  last  Regency — Paris  during  the  war — 
The  news  of  Worth — Shall  the  Emperor  return  ? — The  last  night 
at  the  Tuileries     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .194 

xiv 


Contents 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE   DISCROWNED   EMPRESS 

PAGE 

Loneliness  of  Eugenie  in  the  crisis — The  morning  of  September 
Fourth — The  Empress  and  General  Trochu — The  threatening 
crowds — Revolution — Flight  of  the  Empress — Strangers  in  the 
empty  palace — Dr.  Evans  to  the  rescue — Sir  John  Burgoyne's 
yacht — The  exile's  psalm .219 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE   FIRST  YEARS   IN   ENGLAND 

Bismarck  and  the  Empress — Regnier,  the  spy  of  Metz — Negotiations 
through  General  Boyer — Action  of  the  Empress — Death  of 
Prosper  Merim6e — Return  of  Napoleon  from  Wilhelmshohe — At 
Buckingham  Palace — Last  days  of  the  Emperor — His  will — 
Property  of  the  Imperial  family         .         .         .         .         .         .239 

CHAPTER  XIII 

MOTHER   AND    SON 

Life  at  Camden  Place — The  Prince's  coming  of  age — Arenenberg — 
Correspondence  with  Cardinal  de  Bonnechose — Death  of  the 
Prince  in  Zululand — The  farewell — Cardinal  Manning's  sermon  .  259 

CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    LONELY   YEARS 

The  Empress  and  Queen  Victoria — The  visit  to  South  Africa — Life 

at  Farnborough — The  memorial  church      .....  280 

GENEALOGIES 

The  Scots  ancestry  of  the  Empress  Eugenie         .         .         .         .         .301 

The  Empress  Eugenie's  association  with  the  Houses  of  Stuart  and 

Guelph 302 

INDEX 3^3 


xv 


CHAPTER    I 

SCOTTISH   AND    SPANISH   ANCESTRY   OF   THE   EMPRESS 

The  Dumfries-shire  Kirkpatricks — The  Kirkpatricks  and  Old 
Mortality — William  Kirkpatrick  of  Malaga — Spanish  ancestry  of 
the  Empress — Her  father  and  mother — The  Countess  of  Monti  jo 
— Prosper  Merimee — Granada — The  birth  of  Eugenie. 

THE  first  thought  that  must  occur  to  any  English 
writer  who  attempts  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
Empress  Eugenie  is,  What  would  Queen  Victoria 
have  said  ?  The  greatest  sovereign  in  Europe  held 
out  the  hand  of  sisterly  kindness  to  Napoleon  III 
and  his  consort  when  they  were  driven  to  our  shores 
thirty-six  years  ago  as  discrowned  and  homeless 
fugitives.  The  Empress,  like  our  late  beloved  Queen, 
was  a  widow  before  the  age  of  fifty.  Her  hopes  were 
centred  in  the  young  boy  whom  thousands  of  French 
people  still  yearned  after  as  "  le  petit  Prince,"  and 
for  whom,  before  the  war,  there  had  opened  a 
dazzling  future  as  Napoleon  IV. 

In  the  darkest  hours  of  the  Empress's  life  Queen 
Victoria  was  her  tender  friend.  If  lover  and  ac- 
quaintance stood  afar  off,  there  was  consolation  for 
her  in  that  royal  heart.  When  the  darling  son  had 
perished  in  obscure  African  warfare,  it  was  the 
sympathy  of  the  Queen  which  strengthened  her  to 
endure  her  terrible  bereavement. 

The  fact  that  the  Empress  Eugenie  has  lived  for 


Scottish  and   Spanish   Ancestry 

half  a  lifetime  as  an  honoured  guest  in  England 
destroys  for  us  that  disposition  to  merciless  criticism 
which  characterizes  some  foreign  biographers.  Stu- 
dents of  the  memoirs  of  the  Second  Empire  are 
startled  by  the  ruthless  cruelty  with  which  certain 
writers  assail  the  wife  of  Napoleon,  but,  looking 
more  closely,  we  discover  that  the  sharpest  censures 
come  from  disappointed  office-holders,  supporters 
of  the  old  regime,  or  out-and-out  Republicans.  The 
wind  of  time  has  blown  away  these  heavy  odours. 
The  Empress  is  no  longer  blamed  for  the  errors  of 
her  husband.  The  historian  of  the  Second  Empire, 
M.  Pierre  de  la  Gorce,  says  in  the  preface  to  his 
great  book  that  Napoleon  III  was  before  all  things 
a  conspirator  and  a  dreamer.  The  sentence,  "  In 
the  long  leisure  of  his  captivity  he  had  dulled  himself 
in  dreams,"  suggests  a  modern  Barbarossa,  waiting 
in  the  fortress  of  Ham  for  the  hour  when  the  ravens 
should  cease  to  hover  round  the  peak  and  the  pear- 
tree  blossom  in  the  valley.  "  He  was  a  dreamer  and 
a  conspirator  on  the  throne  and  always."  The 
illustrious  partner  of  his  throne  was  no  conspirator, 
and  her  dreams  were  the  pure  visions  which  float 
over  the  cradle  of  an  only  son. 

Even  in  France  the  voice  of  calumny  has  long  been 
stilled.  Imbert  de  Saint -Amand  wrote  ten  years 
ago  :  "  By  the  very  excess  of  the  calamities  whose 
weight  ennobles  her,  the  widow  of  Napoleon  III  has 
disarmed  envy,  and  when  she  passes  through  the  city 
where  once  she  reigned  with  so  much  splendour, 
there  is  a  sort  of  tacit  agreement,  a  truce  of  God, 
between  all  parties  and  all  the  journals  to  avoid  dis- 
tressing her." 


France  and  the  Empress  Eugenie 

The   Empress   visited    Paris   in    the   year   when 

the   Austrian   Archduchess    Christina   was    passing 

through  on  her  way  to  her  bridal  with  Alphonso  XII. 

Her  presence,  said  one  writer,  was  a  memento  mori, 

a  shadow  on  the  bride's  noontide  hour.     Such  a 

thought  would  scarcely  find  expression  to-day.     The 

younger    generation    of    Republicans    cherishes    no 

resentment   against   the   fairy   queen   who  led   the 

revels  through  the  long  enchanted  night  from  which 

France  woke  to  the  weeping  dawn  which  heralded 

her  day  of  greatness. 

The  Empress,  who  completed  her  eightieth  year 

in  May,  1906,  leads  a  life  so  unobtrusive  that  we 

think  of  her  as  already  half  withdrawn  into  the 

shadows.     The  stars  of  memory  and  hope  gild  her 

tranquil  eventide,  the  memory  of  past  joy  untouched 

with  anguish — for  it  is  the  privilege  of  old  age  to 

remember  the  worst  sorrows  but  as  waters  that  pass 

away — the  hope  of  reunion  with  the  loved  and  lost. 

"  The  dwellers  at  the  North  Pole,"  says  Jean  Paul, 

"  in  their  long  winter  when  the  sun  never  rises,  see 

at  midnight  a  faint  light  tinging  the  highest  peaks, 

and  they  think  of  their  long  summer  when  the  sun 

never  sets." 

For   that   aged  lady — Queen   Victoria's   friend — 

thousands  in  France  and  Britain  will  offer  at  some, 

let  us  hope,  still  distant  day,  the  prayer  of  an  early 

French  poet,  Charles  of  Orleans  : — 

Dieu,  sur  tout  souverain  Seigneur, 
Ordonnez,  par  grace  et  doulceur, 
De  Fame  d'elle,  lellcment, 
Qu'elle  ne  soit  pas  longuement 
En  paine,  soussi  et  doleur. 


Scottish  and   Spanish  Ancestry 

When  Napoleon  III  announced  his  approaching 
marriage  in  January,  1853,  he  stated  frankly  that 
the  bride  he  had  chosen  was  not  of  royal  blood,  but 
he  hastened  to  add  that  she  was  the  daughter  of 
an  illustrious  house.  As  the  descendant  of  noble 
Scottish  and  Spanish  families,  Eugenie  de  Monti  jo, 
Countess  of  Teba,  was  fitted  to  mate  with  a  Bona- 
parte. By  the  great  calling  of  her  birth,  not  less 
than  by  her  beauty  and  high  qualities  of  soul,  she 
was  worthy  to  share  a  throne. 

That  learned  Dumfries-shire  antiquary,  the  late 
Mr.  William  McDowall,  believed  that  the  Kirk- 
patricks  belonged  to  the  old  Scoto-Irish  or  Scoto- 
Saxon  population  of  the  county.  Tradition  avers 
that  they  descended  from  the  giant  Finn  MacCual, 
King  of  the  Fenians  about  200  a.d. 

The  founder  of  the  Closeburn  house  was  Ivon 
Kirkpatrick,  who  received  the  estate  from  Alex- 
ander II  by  a  charter  dated  5  August,  1232.  Three 
centuries  before  Alexander's  reign,  one  or  more 
Dumfries-shire  parishes  had  the  name  of  Kirk- 
patrick. The  most  notable  figure  in  the  mediaeval 
records  of  the  house  was  Sir  Roger  Kirkpatrick, 
great-grandson  of  Ivon,  the  knight  of  the  deadly 
dagger,  who  on  10  February,  1306,  slew  the  red 
Comyn  in  the  church  of  the  Greyfriars  at  Dumfries. 
We  remember  from  our  childhood's  histories  how 
Robert  Bruce,  after  the  fatal  quarrel,  rushed  to  his 
companions,  Roger  Kirkpatrick  and  John  de  Linde- 
say,  crying,  "  I  must  be  gone,  for  I  doubt  I  have 
slain  Comyn  !  "  "  Do  you  doubt  ?  "  cried  Roger  ; 
"  then  I'll  mak  siccar."  Hurrying  back,  he  found 
the  bleeding  victim  behind  the  high  altar,  where 


The   Kirkpatricks  of  Closeburn 

the  monks  had  carried  him,  and  stabbed  him  to 
death  with  many  blows.  Hence  the  motto  and 
crest  of  the  Kirkpatricks,  "  I  mak  siccar  "  (or,  in 
later  times,  "  I  make  sure  "),  with  a  hand  grasping 
a  dagger. 

The  earlier  crest  of  the  house  was  a  thistle,  with 
the  words,  "  Tich  and  I  perce."  "  I  make  sure  "  is 
the  form  registered  at  the  Heralds'  Office  upon  the 
patent  of  baronetcy. 

In  1484  a  younger  son  of  the  Kirkpatricks  won 
from  James  III  the  lands  of  Kirkmichael  in  Dum- 
fries-shire, as  a  reward  for  his  gallantry  in  fighting 
against  the  English  at  the  battle  of  Burnswark 
Hill,  where  he  captured  the  Earl  of  Douglas.  Wil- 
liam Kirkpatrick,  grandfather  of  the  Empress  Eu- 
genie, belonged  to  the  Kirkmichael  branch  of  the 
family. 

The  first  baronet  was  Thomas  Kirkpatrick  of 
Closeburn,  who  received  the  honour  in  1685,  as  the 
reward  of  his  devotion  to  the  Stuarts.  It  is  re- 
ported that  Sir  Thomas,  whose  family  had  been 
Protestant  for  more  than  a  century,  and  who  did 
his  best  for  peace  at  the  Revolution,  was  offered  a 
peerage  by  William  III,  with  the  style  and  title  of 
Earl  of  Closeburn.  He  declined  the  distinction, 
probably  because,  unlike  some  greedy  courtiers  of 
that  period,  he  dreaded  the  nickname  of  "  turncoat." 

Sir  Thomas  Kirkpatrick  was  no  more  a  turncoat 
than  was  Henry  Morton  in  Old  Mortality.  We  read 
with  pleasure  how  he  sheltered  the  Covenanters  in 
the  lonely  glen  of  Crichope  Linn,  on  his  estate,  "  a 
romantic  scene  of  rocks,  thickets,  and  cascades." 
The   enthusiasts,   says  Sir  Walter  Scott,   "  judged 

s 


Scottish  and   Spanish  Ancestry- 
it  safer  to  face  the  apparitions  by  which  the  place 
was  thought  to  be  haunted,  than  to  expose  them- 
selves to  the  rage  of  their  mortal  enemies." 

Dr.  Robert  Simpson,  in  his  Traditions  of  the 
Covenanters,  tells  that  a  party  of  troopers  was  sent 
to  the  house  of  Sir  Thomas  Kirkpatrick  to  ask  for 
help  in  searching  for  Whigs  in  the  woods.  Sir 
Thomas  agreed,  but  was  careful  to  go  by  the  foot- 
paths, while  the  troopers  took  the  more  circuitous 
roads.  In  a  solitary  spot  he  found  a  sleeping  man, 
and  with  his  staff  he  carefully  covered  him  with 
brackens  from  the  prying  eyes  of  the  dragoons.  His 
action  was  observed,  and  one  of  the  soldiers  asked 
what  he  was  doing.  The  baronet  haughtily  replied, 
"  May  I  not  turn  over  the  loose  brackens  and  leaves 
in  my  own  forest  without  asking  your  permission  ?  " 

The  head  of  the  Kirkmichael  branch  was  less 
politic  than  Sir  Thomas,  for  he  failed  to  adapt  him- 
self to  the  changed  world.  William  Kirkpatrick 
sold  the  estate  and  died  in  1686.  His  elder  son, 
George,  escaped  in  1690  in  an  open  boat  from  Gallo- 
way to  the  Giant's  Causeway,  and  founded  the 
flourishing  clan  of  the  Kirkpatricks  in  Ireland.  A 
younger  son,  Robert,  was  beheaded  for  following 
Prince  Charlie  (1747).  Robert's  son  William  had 
nineteen  children,  of  whom  one,  William  Kirk- 
patrick, of  Malaga  (1764-1837),  was  the  grandfather 
of  the  Empress. 

The  main  line  of  the  Kirkpatricks  continues  in 
the  person  of  the  ninth  baronet,  Sir  Charles  Sharpe 
Kirkpatrick,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  1899. 
The  late  Sir  James  Kirkpatrick  was  a  clerk  in  the 
Admiralty,  who  had  served  with  distinction  in  the 


"Old  Mortality" 

Navy.  More  than  a  century  has  passed  since  Close- 
burn,  or  Kilosbern,  as  it  was  called  in  ancient  times, 
passed  out  of  the  possession  of  his  family.  The 
house  had  been  plundered  in  1570  by  the  Earl  of 
Sussex,  and  in  1646  by  the  Douglases.  The  greatest 
disaster  came  in  1748,  when  the  mansion  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire.  All  the  family  portraits  and  furni- 
ture, with  the  principal  papers  and  documents,  were 
consumed.  The  baronet  of  the  day  lived  after  the 
catastrophe  in  the  keep,  but  in  1783  that  historic 
tower,  with  the  lands  belonging  to  it,  was  sold  to 
pay  creditors. 

The  village  of  Closeburn  has  more  than  one 
traditional  connection  with  the  Bonapartes.  Robert 
Paterson,  known  as  "  Old  Mortality,"  was  a  native 
of  the  parish,  and  his  wife  served  as  a  cook  in  the 
family  of  Sir  Thomas  Kirkpatrick,  the  first  baronet. 
It  was  through  the  good  offices  of  Sir  Thomas  that 
the  mason  Robert  Paterson  obtained  from  the  Duke 
of  Queensbury  a  lease  of  the  quarry  of  Gatelowbrigg, 
whence  he  hewed  those  sepulchral  stones  by  which 
"  he  kept  in  remembrance  the  righteous  whose 
dust  had  been  gathered  to  their  fathers."  John 
Paterson,  the  youngest  of  the  three  sons  of  "  Old 
Mortality,"  went  to  America  in  the  year  1776,  and 
eventually  settled  at  Baltimore.  It  was  long  be- 
lieved that  the  Elizabeth  Patterson  who  married 
Prince  Jerome  Bonaparte  was  a  daughter  of  John. 
The  marriage  was  not  acknowledged  in  France,  and 
the  lady  was  repudiated  by  her  husband.  Sir 
Walter  Scott  was  strongly  interested  in  the  story, 
though  he  doubted  its  authenticity.  Writing  to 
Mr.   Train,  he  said  :     "I   shall  hardly  venture  to 

7 


Scottish  and  Spanish  Ancestry 

mention  the  extraordinary  connection  between  the 
Bonaparte  family  and  that  of  '  Old  Mortality '  till 
I  learn  from  you  how  it  is  made  out,  whether  by 
continued  correspondence  between  the  families  of 
the  two  brothers  or  otherwise." 

The  story  gained  credence  the  more  readily  be- 
cause two  American  gentleman,  early  in  the  last 
century,  visited  the  grave  of  "  Old  Mortality,"  say- 
ing that  they  had  been  sent  by  Madame  Bonaparte. 
In  the  memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Paterson,  d.d., 
published  in  1874,  we  find  the  definite  contradiction 
of  a  legend  which  often  reappears  to  this  day  in 
newspapers.  Dr.  Paterson  was  a  grandson  of  "  Old 
Mortality  "  and  a  friend  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  His 
son,  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Paterson,  settled  in  Canada, 
and  went  to  Baltimore  in  1873  on  purpose  to  inquire 
into  the  Bonaparte  legend.  He  found  Mr.  Penning- 
ton, the  lawyer  who  drew  up  the  will  of  Madame 
Bonaparte's  father,  and  was  permitted  to  examine 
it  for  himself.  The  name  of  the  father  was  shown 
to  be  William,  not  John,  Patterson,  of  Tanat,  county 
Donegal,  Ireland.  He  had  been  brought  up  in  con- 
nection with  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  had  seven 
sons  and  one  daughter  after  his  settlement  at  Balti- 
more. In  the  will  he  mentioned  his  daughter  as 
"  Betsey,"  and  as  the  wife  of  Jerome  Bonaparte. 
We  must  reluctantly,  therefore,  abandon  this  curious 
tradition,  according  to  which  the  wife  of  a  second 
Bonaparte  might  have  claimed  ancestral  connection 
with  Closeburn.  It  is,  as  the  biographer  of  Dr, 
Paterson  observes,  too  good  a  story  to  die  easily — 
the  granddaughter  of  "  Old  Mortality  "  united  by 
marriage  to  one  of  the  reigning  houses  of  Europe, 

8 


William  Kirkpatrick  of  Malaga 

and  her  Aunt  Margaret  living  in  poverty  in  the 
village  of  Balmaclellan  ! 

The  grandfather  of  the  Empress  Eugenie  settled 
as  a  fruit  and  wine  merchant  at  Malaga.  He  main- 
tained connection  with  his  Irish  relatives,  sent  them 
presents,  and  once  visited  Dublin.  In  1814  he 
wrote  :  "  When  an  opportunity  occurs  of  recom- 
mending my  house,  I  beg  you  will  not  fail  to  do  so 
to  any  of  your  friends  in  the  habit  of  speculating  in 
this  quarter."  He  was  a  keen  man  of  business,  who 
sold  his  wines  personally  to  customers  in  a  parlour 
at  the  back  of  his  shop.  This  room  became  a  kind 
of  club,  frequented  by  the  young  officers  of  the  town 
and  by  foreign  visitors.  Washington  Irving,  writing 
in  1853,  says  :  "I  knew  the  grandfather  of  the  Em- 
press, old  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  who  had  been  American 
Consul  at  Malaga.  I  passed  an  evening  at  his  house 
in  1827,  near  Adra,  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean. 
A  week  or  two  after,  I  was  at  the  house  of  his  son- 
in-law,  the  Count  Teba,  at  Granada — a  gallant,  in- 
telligent gentleman,  much  cut  up  in  the  wars,  having 
lost  an  eye  and  been  maimed  in  a  leg  and  hand.  His 
wife,  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  was  absent, 
but  he  had  a  family  of  little  girls,  mere  children, 
about  him.  The  youngest  of  these  must  be  the 
present  Empress." 

William  Kirkpatrick  and  all  his  descendants  were 
Roman  Catholics.  A  Protestant  would  never  have 
been  admitted,  as  he  was,  into  the  best  Andalusian 
society.  The  present  English  cemetery  of  Malaga 
dates  only  from  1830.  Before  that  time  the  Pro- 
testants were  laid  in  the  sand  of  the  beach,  where 
the  bodies  were  sometimes  uncovered  by  the  action 


Scottish  and  Spanish  Ancestry 

of  waves  and  winds.     The  English  church  at  Malaga 
was  erected  in  1891. 

One  of  the  leading  residents  when  Kirkpatrick 
settled  there  was  Henri,  Baron  de  Grivegnee,  a 
wealthy  merchant,  whose  family  belonged  to  the 
Netherlands.  They  were,  like  the  Kirkpatricks,  of 
distinguished  standing  in  their  own  country,  and 
ancestors  of  theirs  had  been  several  times  enrolled 
among  the  aldermen  of  Liege.  Henri  came  to  Spain 
as  a  young  man,  and  married  Dona  Antonia  de 
Gallegos.  They  had  two  daughters,  Francoise  and 
Catherine.  The  latter  married  M.  Mathieu  de 
Lesseps,  father  of  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  of  Suez 
Canal  fame  ;  the  former  became  the  wife  of  William 
Kirkpatrick,  and  grandmother  of  the  Empress 
Eugenie.  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  was  not,  as  has 
sometimes  been  stated,  the  son  of  "  one  of  the  Ma- 
laga Kirkpatricks,"  though  he  was  the  first  cousin 
of  the  Empress  Eugenie's  mother.  The  following 
table  shows  their  relationship  : — 

Henri  de  Grivegnee  married  Antonia  de  Gallegos. 


Francoise  de  Grivegnee  Catherine  de  Grivegnee 

married  William  married  Mathieu 

Kirkpatrick  de  Lesseps  I 

I  I 

Manuela,  Countess  of  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps. 

Montij  o 

I 
The  Empress  Eugenie. 

Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  was  nineteen  years  older 
than  the  Empress  Eugenie.  He  was  deeply  attached 
to  her,  and  in  his  will  left  directions  that  a  silver  cup 
she  had  given  him  should  never  go  out  of  the  family. 

10 


Mr.   Kirkpatrick's  Daughters 

We  shall  find  him  at  her  side  in  the  crisis  of  1870. 
His  mother,  Madame  Mathieu  de  Lesseps,  died  in 
the  Rue  Joubert  on  27  January,  1853,  three  days 
before  the  marriage  of  her  great-niece,  Eugenie  de 
Montijo,  with  Napoleon  III. 

William  Kirkpatrick  had  three  daughters,  who 
helped  him  in  his  business,  and  were  much  admired 
for  their  beauty  by  the  members  of  the  informal 
"  club  "  behind  the  shop. 

One  of  the  three,  Carlotta  Catalina,  married  her 
cousin  Thomas  James,  son  of  John  Kirkpatrick 
of  Conheath.  Another,  Henriquita,  married  the 
Count  de  Cabarrus.  The  third,  Maria  Manuela, 
made  a  match  of  far  greater  brilliancy.  Her  hus- 
band, Don  Cipriano  Guzman  de  Palafox  y  Porto- 
carrero,  Count  of  Teba,  belonged  to  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  illustrious  houses  in  Spain.  By 
the  death  of  his  elder  brother  in  1834  he  became 
Count  of  Montijo,  and  inherited  for  the  first  time 
wealth  sufficient  to  support  his  rank.  The  Guzmans 
trace  their  descent  from  the  early  days  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy.  One  of  their  heroes  was  Alonzo  Perez 
de  Guzman,  who,  as  Governor  of  Tarifa,  defended 
the  town  against  the  Infante  Don  Juan,  then  in  revolt 
against  his  brother,  Sancho  IV,  King  of  Castile. 
Don  Juan  had  taken  prisoner  the  son  of  Alonzo  Perez, 
and  threatened  to  kill  the  boy  unless  the  citadel  were 
surrendered.  Alonzo's  answer  was  to  fling  down  a 
cutlass.  Hence  the  motto  of  the  Guzmans,  "  Mas 
pesa  el  rey  que  la  sangre  " — "  My  King  before  my 
Kin." 

The  elder  brother  of  the  Count  of  Teba  has  been 
described  as  a  Spanish  Mirabeau.     He  was  a  bitter 


1 1 


Scottish  and  Spanish  Ancestry 

enemy  of  France  and  a  leader  of  revolt  at  home.  In 
March,  1808,  he  entered  the  palace  of  Aranjuez  at 
the  head  of  a  small  force,  and  tried  to  prevent  King 
Charles  IV  from  leaving.  M.  Thiers  mentions  the 
incident  in  his  History  of  the  Consulate  and  Empire. 
"  The  throng  at  Aranjuez  was  extreme,  and  the  most 
sinister  and  strange  faces  began  to  appear  there.  A 
singular  personage,  persecuted  at  Court,  who  united 
to  the  birth  and  fortune  of  a  great  noble  the  art  and 
inclination  to  move  the  popular  masses,  was  in  the 
midst  of  this  crowd,  ready  to  give  the  signal  for  the 
insurrection."  That  nobleman  was  the  Count  of 
Monti  jo,  uncle  of  the  Empress. 

Don  Cipriano,  the  younger  brother,  offered  his 
sword  to  Napoleon  and  became  a  colonel  of  artillery 
in  the  French  service.  During  the  defence  of  Paris 
in  1814  he  commanded  the  pupils  of  the  Ecole  Poly- 
technique,  and  was  the  last  to  fire  the  guns  from  the 
heights  of  Montmartre.  Colonel  Portocarrero,  as  he 
was  called  by  his  comrades,  had  lost  an  eye  in  the 
battle  of  Salamanca,  and  notwithstanding  his  ad- 
vantages of  blood  and  lineage,  he  was  hardly,  either 
in  person  or  intellect,  a  suitor  likely  to  attract  a 
young  and  beautiful  girl  such  as  Manuela  Kirk- 
patrick.  She  met  him  for  the  first  time,  it  is  said, 
at  the  house  of  her  aunt,  Madame  de  Lesseps,  in 
Paris.  William  Kirkpatrick  had  given  his  daughter 
a  Parisian  education,  and  she  had  natural  gifts  which 
won  for  her  in  later  years  the  admiring  friendship 
of  the  chief  literary  men  of  the  day.  Manuela 
realized  the  immense  advantages  of  a  marriage  with 
a  grandee  of  Spain,  and  she  considered  herself, 
though  the  daughter  of  a  merchant,  in  no  way  in- 


12 


A   Brilliant  Marriage 

ferior  socially  to  the  Count  of  Teba.  Mr.  Kirk- 
patrick  said  to  his  future  son-in-law  :  "  You  can 
trace  up  to  Alfonzo  XI  ;  if  I  trace  to  Robert  Bruce, 
I  suppose  His  Majesty  will  be  satisfied."  He  laid 
before  King  Ferdinand  VII  a  patent  from  the 
Heralds'  Office  in  Edinburgh,  certifying  his  descent 
from  the  ancient  Barons  of  Closeburn.  "  Let  the 
good  man  marry  the  daughter  of  Fingal,"  exclaimed 
Ferdinand.  The  Count  of  Montijo  was  highly  dis- 
pleased with  his  brother's  choice,  and  himself  took 
a  wife,  in  hope  of  handing  on  the  title  in  the  elder 
line.  The  Countess  of  Teba  acted  with  much  dis- 
cretion towards  her  sister-in-law,  and  in  time  even 
the  proud  Montijo  accepted  her  as  one  of  the  family. 
The  marriage  of  the  Empress  Eugenie's  mother  took 
place  on  15  December,  1817.  Her  husband's  age 
was  thirty-two. 

Rumour  insisted  that  the  gaiety  and  extravagance 
of  Manuela  were  displeasing  to  Count  Teba,  and  that 
domestic  reasons  explained  his  departure  from  Ma- 
laga to  Granada.  His  ideas  ran  in  narrow  grooves  ; 
he  wished  his  daughters  to  be  brought  up  cheaply, 
as  if  destined  to  a  humble  lot.  He  made  few  friends, 
and  left  to  his  wife  the  task  of  entertaining.  The 
beautiful  Countess  had  a  host  of  men  acquaintances, 
attracted  by  her  wit,  her  grace,  and  her  lively, 
vivacious  manners.  George  Ticknor,  the  historian 
of  Spanish  literature,  has  described  the  mother  of 
the  Empress  as  he  saw  her  in  1818  at  Malaga.  "  I 
do  not  doubt,  he  says,  "  that  she  is  the  most  culti- 
vated and  the  most  interesting  woman  in  Spain." 
She  had  been  carefully  educated  by  her  mother, 
whom    he    mistakenly    calls    "  a    Scotchwoman." 

'3 


Scottish  and   Spanish  Ancestry 

"  Possessing  extraordinary  talents,  and  giving  an  air 
of  originality  to  all  that  she  says  and  does,  she  unites 
in  a  most  bewitching  manner  the  Andalusian  grace 
and  frankness  to  a  French  facility  in  her  manners, 
and  the  genuine  English  thoroughness  in  her  know- 
ledge and  accomplishments.  She  knows  the  five 
chief  modern  languages  well,  and  feels  their  different 
characters,  and  estimates  their  literatures  aright ; 
she  has  the  foreign  accomplishments  of  singing,  play- 
ing, painting,  etc.,  and  the  national  one  of  dancing, 
in  a  high  degree.  In  conversation  she  is  brilliant 
and  original ;  and  yet  with  all  this  she  is  a  true 
Spaniard,  and  as  full  of  Spanish  feelings  as  she  is  of 
talent  and  culture." 

Thirty  years  later  M.  de  Puibusque,  author  of 
UHistoire  Compar^e  des  Literatures  espagnole  et 
franpaise,  meeting  Mr.  Ticknor  in  Boston,  spoke 
with  admiration  of  the  Countess  de  Montijo,  praising 
her  talents  and  accomplishments.  Mr.  Ticknor 
explained  that  he  knew  of  but  one  lady  in  Spain 
to  whom  such  a  description  could  apply,  and  had 
believed  her  to  be  the  only  one,  but  she  was  Countess 
of  Teba.  His  friend  explained  that  it  was  the  same 
person,  under  a  title  inherited  later. 

The  letters  of  Prosper  Merimee  are  the  richest 
source  of  information  about  this  remarkable  woman. 
Merimee  visited  Spain  for  the  first  time  in  1830,  and 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Count  of  Teba  on  a 
stage-coach  journey.  The  soldier,  we  may  imagine, 
described  the  battles  of  the  Peninsular  War  to  the 
French  author,  who  was,  like  himself,  a  Napoleon 
enthusiast.  He  invited  the  young  man  to  his  house 
in  the  Calle  del  Sordo,  Madrid,  and  there  was  laid 

14 


Prosper  Merimee 

the  foundation  of  the  lifelong  friendship  between 
Merimee  and  the  Countess.  No  legendary  Princess 
of  the  Alhambra  had  a  more  willing  servant  than 
she  found  in  this  stranger  from  Paris.  For  him  the 
glory  and  romance  of  southern  Spain  were  realized 
in  one  astonishing  vision.  He  was  enchanted  with 
her  grace,  her  freshness,  the  keenness  and  activity 
of  her  intellect,  her  wit  and  readiness  in  talk.  She 
knew  Spanish  literature  and  history,  told  him  stories 
of  the  Alhambra  and  the  Generalife.  It  was  the 
Countess  who  suggested  two  of  his  principal  works, 
Carmen  and  Don  Pedro.  Merimee  appreciated  the 
practical  qualities  of  his  friend,  and  had  good  reason 
to  be  grateful  for  them.  When  he  was  gathering 
materials  for  Don  Pedro  she  told  him  where  the  in- 
formation might  be  found,  and  worried  on  his  behalf 
the  sleepy  custodians  of  archives. 

"  Whatever  you  may  say  about  it,"  wrote  Meri- 
mee in  1847,  "  you  are  made  for  battle,  and  it  would 
be  ridiculous  to  wish  for  Caesar  the  peaceful  life  of 
the  second  citizen  of  Rome."  Elsewhere  he  speaks 
of  her  courage  and  her  "  bonne  tete."  After  the 
widowhood  of  the  Countess,  the  frequent  visits  of 
Merimee  to  her  house  at  Madrid  and  to  her  chateau 
of  Carabanchel  gave  rise  to  some  gossip,  but  we  have 
his  testimony  in  a  letter  written  to  his  friend  Beyle, 
that  although  the  Countess  was  a  dear  friend,  there 
had  never  been  any  question  of  love  between  them. 
There  is  one  undated  note,  written  evidently  in  a 
sulky  mood,  which  may  refer  to  whispers  he  had 
heard  from  Madrid.  "  I  do  not  know  if  the  Countess 
of  Montijo  is  still  pretty  ;  in  my  time  she  was,  and 
virtuous  into  the  bargain.     It  is  possible  that  she 

'5 


Scottish  and  Spanish  Ancestry 

may  have  lost  these  two  qualities."  Such  a  passing 
breath  of  ill-humour  cannot  detract  from  the  loyal 
friendship  which  this  eminent  writer  consecrated 
to  his  princess  of  1830,  and  which  he  transferred  to 
her  children,  and  especially  to  Eugenie.  Nothing  can 
be  more  graceful  than  the  picture  drawn  by  M.  Filon 
of  the  Empress  walking  in  the  Tuileries  Gardens  in 
1868  with  a  little  old  gentleman  by  her  side  who 
called  himself  sometimes  "  le  bouffon  de  Sa  Majeste," 
but  whom  she  treated  with  the  tenderness  and  con- 
fidence of  a  daughter. 

It  must  have  been  a  trying  journey  from  Malaga 
to  Granada  for  the  Count  of  T£ba  and  his  young 
wife.  Mr.  Hare,  who  travelled  by  the  same  route  in 
1871,  complains  of  the  roughness  of  the  road.  "  At 
Las  Salinas  two  diligences  were  waiting  for  us,  not 
nearly  enough  for  the  great  number  of  passengers, 
so  the  crowding  was  dreadful.  The  road  from  hence 
was  a  mere  track,  broken  in  some  places  into  deep 
quagmires  and  pools  of  water,  mended  in  others  by 
great  lumps  of  rock  thrown  loosely  down  anyhow. 
Through  and  over  these  we  floundered,  thumped, 
jolted,  and  crashed,  in  a  way  which  was  absolutely 
frightful,  especially  when  a  precipice  at  the  side, 
dimly  seen  through  the  night,  added  to  the  dangers. 
Every  one  was  occupied  in  holding  on  as  they  best 
could.  No  one  had  time  to  think  of  the  robbers, 
though  many  were  known  to  be  about,  and  we  had 
an  armed  escort  hanging  on  behind." 

But  the  perils  of  the  way  must  have  been  forgotten 
when  the  travellers  at  length  beheld 

The  old  rain-fretted  mountains  in  their  robes 
Of  shadow-broken  grey ;  the  rounded  hills 

16 


Birth  of  the  Empress 

Reddened  with  blood  of  Titans,  whose  huge  limbs 

Entombed  within,  feed  full  the  hardy  flesh 

Of  cactus  green  and  blue-sworded  aloes ; 

The  cypress  soaring  black  above  the  lines 

Of  white  court-walls ;  the  pointed  sugar-canes 

Pale-golden  with  their  feathers  motionless 

In  the  warm  quiet. 

The  city  of  Granada  has  altered  little  in  size  during 
the  last  eighty  years.  The  Calle  de  Gratia,  where 
the  Count  of  Teba  lived,  is  in  the  aristocratic  quarter 
near  the  outskirts,  and  is  terminated  by  the  Placeta 
de  Gratia,  which  contains  the  buildings  of  a  secula- 
rized convent.  To  reach  the  Calle  de  Gratia  from 
the  Alhambra,  we  go  by  the  Plaza  Nueva  to  the 
principal  Moorish  street,  "  El  Zacatin,"  which  passes 
near  the  cathedral  and  the  Archbishop's  palace. 
A  few  turnings  lead  us  to  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria 
Magdalena,  nearly  opposite  to  which  is  the  house 
(No.  12)  in  which,  as  a  marble  tablet  informs  us, 
Eugenia  de  Guzman  y  Portocarrero,  wife  of  Napoleon 
III,  was  born  in  1826.  The  tablet  was  erected  by 
the  municipality  in  1867,  to  "  the  Empress  of  the 
French,  its  noble  compatriot." 

Maria  Eugenia  Ignacia  Augustina  was  born  on 
5  May,  1826,  during  an  earthquake  which  shook  the 
city.  A  golden-haired  child,  she  had  from  infancy 
a  pensive,  melancholy,  wondering  gaze — "  ce  regard 
de  predestine,"  says  a  French  writer,  which  Paris 
saw  thirty  years  later  in  the  eyes  of  her  son.  Eu- 
genio,  Count  of  Monti  jo,  had  become  reconciled  to 
his  sister-in-law,  for  he  consented  to  act  as  godfather 
to  his  younger  niece. 


17 


CHAPTER    II 


EUGENIE  S   GIRLHOOD 


Her  childhood  in  Spain — Early  years  in  Paris — Stendhal  and 
Merimee — Death  of  Eugenie's  father — Louis  Napoleon — His 
projects  of  marriage — The  hunting  parties  at  Compiegne — 
Eugenie  at  Court — First  rumours  of  the  engagement. 

UNTIL  the  age  of  eight  the  little  Eugenie  lived 
happily  in  the  nursery  at  Granada,  and  in  the 
Calle  del  Sordo  at  Madrid.  The  brother  and  sister, 
who  were  the  playmates  of  her  childhood,  were 
destined  to  a  lot  far  different  from  her  own.  The  boy 
Paco,  who  should  have  inherited  the  ancient  glories 
of  the  Guzmans,  faded  like  a  flower  under  the  hot 
morning  beams.  The  elder  sister,  married  at  nine- 
teen to  the  Duke  of  Alba,  died  in  the  prime  of  woman- 
hood, and  has  been  survived  by  the  Empress  for 
more  than  forty  years. 

The  first  disturbance  of  Count  Teba's  family  life 
came  in  1834,  when,  by  the  death  of  his  elder  brother 
Eugenio,  he  succeeded  to  the  title  of  Count  of  Montijo. 
The  new  rank  carried  with  it,  not  only  the  abundant 
wealth  for  lack  of  which  Count  Tuba's  life  had  so 
long  been  "  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries,"  but 
other  splendid  old-world  titles,  such  as  the  dukedom 
of  Peharanda.  At  the  time  of  the  Empress's  mar- 
riage, French  writers  pointed  out  that  the  widowed 
mother,  who  called  herself  Countess  of  Montijo,  had 

18 


The  Flight  from  Madrid 

an  equal  right  to  the  title  "  Duchess  of  Penaranda," 
but  that  the  custom,  among  the  Spanish  nobility, 
is  to  choose,  as  a  titular  distinction,  the  oldest  dignity 
conferred  upon  their  house. 

The  disturbances  of  1834  drove  the  Countess  of 
Montij  o  and  her  children  from  Madrid.  The  Count, 
who  had  become  a  senator  by  the  death  of  his  brother, 
remained  behind  to  help  in  the  re-establishment  of 
public  order.  Gossips  have  hinted  that  the  gay  and 
brilliant  Countess,  now  for  the  first  time  possessed 
of  an  income  adequate  to  her  ambition,  was  not 
sorry  to  escape  from  the  society  of  her  narrow- 
minded  and  jealous  husband,  from  the  fierce  and 
quarrelsome  Spanish  Court,  to  the  larger  and  more 
easy  life  of  Paris.  She  passed  through  Perpignan, 
and  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Governor,  the 
Marechal  de  Castellane.  In  his  journal  for  20  July, 
1834,  M.  de  Castellane  wrote  :  "  Many  Spaniards  are 
passing  through  Perpignan  ;  most  of  them  come 
from  Madrid,  and  are  on  their  way  to  Toulouse ; 
they  are  flying  from  cholera  and  the  civil  war.  The 
Countess  of  Teba,  a  woman  of  thirty-five — extremely 
intelligent — is  going  to  Toulouse.  She  has  a  very 
considerable  fortune.  Her  husband  has  remained 
at  Madrid  for  the  session  of  the  Cortes.  Madame 
de  Teba  did  not  leave  Madrid  till  the  18th  ;  she  saw 
dreadful  things  done  there.  The  City  Guard  maimed 
and  assassinated  the  monks  and  the  Jesuits,  even 
in  their  churches.  The  troops  of  the  line  were  under 
arms,  but  looked  on  without  interfering."  Madame 
de  T£ba  spoke  of  the  situation  in  Spain  as  frightful, 
famine  being  threatened  in  addition  to  other  miseries. 

When  the  marriage  of  Napoleon  III  and  Made- 

19 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

moiselle  de  Monti  jo  was  announced  in  January, 
1853,  the  veteran  Marshal  de  Castellane  wrote  to 
one  of  his  daughters  :  "  For  my  part  I  am  glad  to 
hear  it.  I  little  thought,  when  her  mother  brought 
her  to  me  at  Perpignan,  on  29  July,  1834,  holding 
by  the  hand  Eugenie  and  her  sister — for  she  had 
with  her  two  little  girls  and  a  little  boy  called  Paco 
— that  she  would  one  day  be  Empress  of  the  French. 
At  that  time  I  gave  the  Countess  of  Monti  jo,  who 
was  flying  from  Spain,  letters  of  introduction  to  our 
relations  at  Toulouse.  I  see  in  looking  up  my  notes 
that  her  age  was  then  from  thirty  to  thirty-five. 
She  was  tall,  well  preserved,  and  remarkably  clever." 
Between  1834  and  1839  the  Countess  of  Montijo 
and  her  children  spent  much  time  in  Paris.  Amongst 
their  new  friends  the  most  distinguished  was  Count 
Alexandre  de  Laborde,  in  whose  learned  circle  they 
met  Henri  Beyle  (known  to  literature  as  Stendhal), 
and  renewed  their  acquaintance  with  Prosper  Meri- 
mee. Writers  on  the  childhood  of  the  Empress 
must  acknowledge  a  debt  to  M.  Augustin  Filon, 
tutor  of  the  Prince  Imperial,  who  was  permitted 
twelve  years  ago  to  examine  the  still  unpublished 
correspondence  of  Merimee  with  the  Countess  of 
Montijo.  These  letters  cover  a  period  of  thirty 
years  (1839-70).  From  the  Empress  herself  M. 
Filon  learned  that  she  and  her  sister  Paca  owed  much 
to  their  pleasant  intercourse  in  childhood  with  great 
writers  like  Beyle  and  Merimee,  and  we  know  from 
other  sources  that  she  often  recalled  in  later  life  the 
inspiring  stories  told  while  she  and  Paca  sat  on  Stend- 
hal's knees.  He  had  served  as  a  dragoon  under 
Napoleon,  and  his  talk  was  full  of  warlike  remi- 


20 


Eugenie  and   Stendhal 

niscences.  He  could  call  up  before  the  eyes  of  the 
children  the  figure  of  the  great  Emperor,  a  captain 
dearly  loved  by  their  father,  who  was  now  alone  in 
stormy  Madrid.  "  The  children  were  born  Bona- 
partists  in  that  family/'  says  M.  Filon.  "  The 
Empress  has  more  than  once  told  me  that  the  even- 
ings when  M.  Beyle  came  were  specially  good  times. 
'  We  awaited  them  impatiently,  because  we  were 
sent  to  bed  rather  later  on  these  nights,  and  his 
stories  amused  us  so  much  !  '  "  Readers  of  Stend- 
hal's principal  work,  La  Chartreuse  de  Parme,  will 
recall  the  description  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 
The  hero  in  the  little  hat  and  the  grey  coat  appeared 
in  many  of  his  narratives.  We  can  imagine  four 
bright  eyes  shining  as  the  children  heard  how  one 
day  the  violets  might  be  wreathed  again  round  the 
Imperial  crown  of  France,  and  the  awe-stricken  faces 
as  the  old  cavalryman  told  perhaps  of  a  nightly  re- 
view, in  which  Napoleon  still  received  the  homage 
of  vast  armies  of  the  dead.  Beyle  gave  the  girls 
pictures  to  illustrate  his  tales,  and  M.  Filon  mentions 
that  the  Empress  still  preserves  one  of  the  battle  of 
Austerlitz,  presented  by  her  friend. 

The  portrait  of  Stendhal  by  Dreux  d'Orcy,  in  the 
museum  of  his  birthplace,  Grenoble,  suggests  quali- 
ties which  attract  the  young.  There  is  infinite 
humour  in  that  mocking  but  kindly  mouth,  infinite 
fancy  in  the  keen  dark  eyes  and  lofty  brow.  In  the 
companionship  of  his  little  friends  he  threw  aside 
his  affectation  of  cynicism,  and  all  the  queer  manner- 
isms— the  frequent  glances  in  the  looking-glass,  the 
display  of  his  small,  well-shaped  hands — which 
amused  his  grown-up  contemporaries.     Beyle  died 


21 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

in  1842,  while  the  future  Empress  was  still  a  school- 
girl. 

Eugenie  showed  an  early  talent  for  drawing,  and 
her  crayon  portraits  were  admired.  Years  after- 
wards she  is  said  to  have  contributed,  under  an 
assumed  name,  a  design  for  the  new  Opera  House. 

Her  spelling,  by  her  own  admission,  was  not  a 
strong  point.  "  In  eight  pages,"  she  writes  to  a 
friend,  "  sprinkled  with  mistakes  in  spelling,  which 
give  originality  to  my  letters,  I  have  proved  that  I 
forget  myself  in  writing  to  you." 

Prosper  Merimee  watched  over  her  early  education, 
corrected  her  French  exercises,  and  gave  her  writing 
lessons.  To  the  end  of  his  life  the  Empress  called 
him,  respectfully,  "  Monsieur  Merimee,"  though  all 
Paris,  all  Europe,  knew  him  simply  as  Merimee. 
The  little  girls  went  out  walking  with  their  friend, 
and  the  beauty  of  the  golden-haired  Eugenie  even 
then  attracted  admiring  glances.  Their  wanderings 
often  ended  at  a  confectioner's  door,  where  Meri- 
mee would  regale  his  young  friends  with  cakes  and 
sweets. 

The  thought  must  occur  to  the  student  of  Meri- 
mee's  books  and  voluminous  correspondence,  was 
he  the  best  companion  for  two  young  girls,  one  of 
whom  was  destined  to  a  throne  ?  When  we  turn 
from  the  eloquent  and  sympathetic  pages  of  M. 
Filon's  Mdrimde  et  ses  Amis  to  the  colder  estimates 
of  other  French  critics — above  all,  when  we  ex- 
amine the  Lettres  a  une  Inconnue,  and  the  Letters 
to  Panizzi,  we  feel  that  Merimee  was  not  a  man  of 
high  ideals  or  ennobling  principle.  The  motto  en- 
graved upon  his  seal,  ^vad  airiarelu  "  Remember 


22 


Eugenie  and  Merimee 

to  Distrust,"  was  a  poor  and  selfish  gospel  for  the 
man  who  guided  the  early  years  of  an  empress. 
Merimee  was  a  well-known  figure  during  the  season 
in  London  society,  a  frequenter  of  the  Athenaeum, 
the  friend  of  statesmen  and  writers.  On  one  oc- 
casion he  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Gladstone  ;  and,  in 
a  letter  describing  the  visit,  goes  out  of  his  way  to 
sneer  at  morning  prayers,  and  to  grumble  at  the 
breakfast  rolls,  "  from  which  one  suffered  all  day 
after."  On  his  first  journey  to  Spain  he  found 
"  indescribable  pleasure "  in  the  bull-fights.  In 
religion  an  avowed  sceptic,  he  caused  grave  scandal 
by  arranging  with  Sainte-Beuve  and  other  literary 
friends  for  a  banquet  on  the  most  solemn  day  of  the 
Christian  year.  Gambetta  called  the  group  "  ri- 
pailleurs  des  vendredis  saints  " — Good  Friday  revel- 
lers. 

Maxime  Du  Camp,  in  his  Literary  Souvenirs,  says 
of  Merimee  that  he  was  easily  impressed  by  great 
people  and  naturally  obsequious  to  them.  "  He 
showed  the  Empress  all  respect  before  her  face,  but 
when  out  of  her  hearing  would  speak  of  her  fami- 
liarly as  '  Eugenie.'  "  This  was  a  habit  that 
Merimee  had  learned  in  Spain.  In  January,  1853, 
amid  the  chorus  of  detraction  which  malicious  voices 
raised  against  the  Emperor  Napoleon's  lovely  bride, 
the  most  ridiculous  statement  was  that  Eugenie 
allowed  her  men  friends  to  call  her  by  her  Christian 
name.  It  was  pointed  out  in  reply  that  in  the 
highest  circles  of  Madrid  the  Countess  of  Teba  was 
known  even  to  her  acquaintances  as  "  Eugenie." 

Maxime  Du  Camp  was  strongly  prejudiced  against 
Merimee.     He  notes  his  vein  of  Rabelaisian  humour, 

23 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

and  the  dislike  which  he  inspired  in  George  Sand. 
"  He  had  a  fancy  for  having  his  clothes  made  in 
England,  and  the  ungraceful  cut  of  the  thick  cloth 
added  to  the  stiffness  of  his  appearance."  Merimee 
might  have  retorted  that  he  was  a  customer  of 
Poole,  the  most  fashionable  tailor  in  London. 

"  Merimee  is  a  gentleman  !  "  said  Victor  Cousin, 
who  owed  him  many  a  kindness.  "  No  one  else 
thought  so,"  grumbles  M.  Du  Camp.  The  truth  is 
that  this  cynical  and  witty  writer  never  exerted 
himself  to  secure  the  goodwill  of  the  literary  pro- 
fession, and  never  paid  court  to  younger  men.  His 
manner  to  his  equals  was  stiff,  haughty,  suspicious. 
The  son  of  an  unsuccessful  artist,  the  grandson  of 
a  country  lawyer,  he  expanded  genially  in  the  society 
of  aristocrats,  and  was  at  home  under  palace  roofs. 

The  best  characteristic  of  Merimee  was  his  love 
of  children.  Florence  Nightingale,  "  la  petite  Flo," 
played  with  him  as  a  very  little  girl  in  an  English 
country  house-party.  Late  in  life  he  expressed  the 
wish  to  adopt  a  daughter.  The  magic  of  his  genius, 
the  tender  playfulness  of  his  talk,  won  from  the 
beginning  the  heart  of  Eugenie  de  Montijo. 

In  a  letter  written  to  Dr.  Veron  at  the  time  of  his 
appointment  as  a  Senator,  Merimee  tells  the  story 
of  their  early  friendship.  "  You  know  my  whole 
history  as  well  as  I  do.  Chance  sent  me  to  Spain 
for  relaxation,  and  there  I  met  very  good  and  kindly 
people,  who  received  me  hospitably.  I  met  there 
a  little  girl  to  whom  I  told  stories.  I  begged  her 
off  when  she  did  not  know  her  lessons,  and  later  on 
I  preached  sermons  to  her  with  three  heads,  for  I 
am  very  hard  on  young  folk.     One  day  this  little 


Death  of  Eugenie's   Father 

girl  told  me  she  was  going  to  marry  the  Emperor. 
I  entreated  her  to  make  me  take  a  solemn  oath  that 
I  would  never  ask  anything  from  her.  After  some 
discussion  she  made  me  take  the  oath  with  much 
solemnity.  The  Emperor,  at  her  request,  wished  to 
give  me  a  very  good  post  where  there  would  be 
much  to  do.  I  begged  him  to  leave  me  to  my  monu- 
ments, where  I  was  more  at  liberty.  The  Empress 
then  said  to  me  in  Spanish,  '  We  will  give  you  some- 
thing else  ;  if  you  don't  accept  that,  you  are  our 
enemy.'     That  is  how  I  lost  my  old  freedom." 

In  March,  1839,  the  Countess  of  Montijo  received 
a  message  announcing  her  husband's  serious  illness. 
After  a  five-years'  separation  she  left  Paris  in  haste 
to  rejoin  him.  Her  young  daughters  had  been 
placed,  two  years  earlier,  in  the  Convent  of  the  Sacred 
Heart  in  the  Rue  de  Varennes,  where  they  were 
known  by  their  surname  of  Palafox.  Finding, 
when  she  reached  Madrid,  that  her  husband  was 
dangerously  ill,  the  Countess  sent  for  them. 

Accompanied  by  their  English  governess,  Miss 
Flowers,  they  set  off  by  stage-coach  on  17  March. 
Their  kind  friend  Merimee  begged  for  a  letter  on 
the  journey,  and  from  Oloron,  where  bad  weather 
detained  the  travellers,  the  thirteen-year-old  Eu- 
genie wrote  him  a  pretty  note  on  ruled  paper.  The 
children  never  saw  their  father  alive.  He  had  passed 
away  before  they  left  Paris,  on  15  March,  1839. 

Middle-aged  French  people  can  still  remember 
the  actions  taken  by  the  Countess  of  Montijo,  after 
the  fall  of  the  Empire,  against  newspapers  winch  had 
published  false  statements  with  regard  to  her  married 
life  and  the  date  of  her  husband's  death.     From 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

some  papers  she  obtained  damages,  and  from  nearly 
all  apologies. 

The  documents,  copied  from  Spanish  registers, 
which  attest  the  date  of  her  wedding,  the  baptism 
of  her  two  daughters,  and  the  death  of  the  Count  of 
Monti  jo,  were  published  in  1877  in  a  pamphlet  en- 
titled U Intptratrice  :  Notes  et  Documents. 

The  widowed  Countess  was  the  mistress  of  a  great 
fortune,  and  a  position  of  influence  opened  to  her  at 
the  Spanish  Court.  When  the  period  of  mourning 
ended,  she  embarked  on  the  social  enjoyments 
which  from  girlhood  had  been  dear  to  her,  and  which 
had  been  denied  hitherto  through  lack  of  means. 
Her  time  was  divided  between  her  town  house  in 
the  Plaza  del  Angel  and  her  country  estate  of  Cara- 
banchel. 

Washington  Irving  describes  one  of  her  balls  in 
the  capital.  "  When  I  had  recently  taken  up  my 
abode  in  Madrid,"  he  says,  "  I  was  invited  to  a  grand 
ball  at  the  house  of  the  Countess  Monti  jo — one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  ton.  On  making  my  bow  to  her, 
I  was  surprised  at  being  received  with  the  warmth 
and  eagerness  of  an  old  friend.  She  claimed  me  as 
the  friend  of  her  late  husband,  the  Comte  Teba 
(subsequently  Marquis  Montijo),  who,  she  said,  had 
often  spoken  of  me  with  the  greatest  regard.  She 
took  me  into  another  room,  and  showed  me  a  minia- 
ture of  the  Count,  such  as  I  had  known  him,  with  a 
black  patch  over  one  eye.  She  subsequently  intro- 
duced me  to  the  little  girls  I  had  known  at  Granada 
— now  fashionable  belles  at  Madrid.  After  this  I 
was  frequently  at  her  house,  which  was  one  of  the 
gayest  in  the  capital.     The  Countess  and  her  daugh- 

26 


Life  at  Carabanchel 

ters  all  spoke  English.  The  elder  daughter  was 
married,  while  I  was  in  Madrid,  to  the  Duke  of  Alva 
and  Berwick,  the  lineal  successor  to  the  pretender 
to  the  British  Crown.  The  younger  now  sits  on  the 
throne  of  France." 

In  Merimee's  Lettres  a  une  Inconnue  we  have  a 
hint  of  the  uses  to  which  the  girls  put  their  devoted 
friend  in  Paris.  "  I  have  been  hunting  over  the 
whole  town,"  he  says,  "  to  buy  dresses  and  hats, 
and  for  Wednesday  I  have  made  an  appointment 
to  order  a  fancy  shepherdess  costume.  These  things 
are  all  for  the  two  daughters  of  Madame .  Ad- 
vise me.  What  costume  ought  they  to  have  for 
a  fancy  ball  ?  A  Highland  lass  and  a  Polish  peasant 
are  already  sent  off.  I  have  a  shepherdess,  but  I 
still  need  another  dress.  The  elder  girl  is  a  brunette, 
pale,  not  quite  as  tall  as  you,  very  pretty,  with  a  gay 
expression.  The  younger  is  very  tall,  very  fair, 
marvellously  lovely,  with  the  hair  that  Titian  loved. 
I  want  to  make  her  a  shepherdess  with  powdered 
hair.     Advise  me  about  the  other." 

At  Carabanchel  the  Countess  of  Montijo  and  her 
daughters  enjoyed  a  life  of  merry  freedom.  A  rural 
theatre  on  the  estate  was  in  frequent  use  for  plays 
and  operas. 

M.  Filon  says  of  the  Countess,  "  She  made  every- 
body sing  and  dance  ;  she  married  people  and  amused 
them  to  her  dying  day.  She  scattered  pleasure, 
she  imposed  happiness  around  her."  Merimee  visited 
Spain  for  the  second  time  in  1840,  and  was  the  guest 
of  the  Countess  at  Carabanchel.  He  was  pressed 
into  her  service  at  the  theatre  as  scene-painter, 
stage-shifter,  prompter,  and  manager.     Writing  to 

37 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

the  Inconnue,  he  remarks,  "  I  was  alone  with  six 
women,  of  whom  the  eldest  was  thirty-six,  and  I  was 
not  in  love  with  any  of  them." 

From  Paris,  on  his  return,  he  sent  flower  seeds 
for  the  gardener  at  Carabanchel,  and  Chinese  lan- 
terns for  the  open-air  festivals.  Large  parcels  often 
accompanied  his  weekly  letters,  which  were  passed 
through  the  Foreign  Office.  In  return  the  Countess 
sent  him  a  particular  kind  of  Spanish  loaf  which  she 
considered  more  wholesome  than  Paris  bread.  She 
also  sent  matches,  which  were  then,  as  now,  dear  in 
the  French  capital. 

At  the  Court  of  Isabella  II  the  Countess  of  Montijo 
was  for  a  time  eagerly  welcomed.  In  1847  she  held 
for  three  months  the  post  of  camarera  mayor,  or  first 
lady  of  honour.  Her  friends  learned  with  anxiety 
that  she  was  accustomed  to  drive  out  alone  in  a 
phaeton  with  the  Queen,  who  might  at  any  moment 
become  a  mark  for  the  assassin.  As  a  result  of  some 
obscure  intrigue,  the  Countess  left  her  position  at 
the  end  of  three  months.  Merimee  dedicated  to 
her  his  history  of  Don  Pedro  I,  published  in  1848. 
The  honour  was  well  deserved,  for  the  Countess 
had  explained  to  him  the  peculiarities  of  the  Mozara- 
bic  ritual,  the  ancient  feudal  customs  of  Spain,  and 
the  meaning  of  obsolete  mediaeval  words.  "  I  am 
confounded  by  your  learning,"  he  wrote,  and  again, 
"  I  have  accustomed  myself  to  regard  you  as  my 
providence." 

When  Don  Pedro  was  published,  the  Countess 
had  achieved  one  object  of  her  ambition  by  ar- 
ranging a  great  marriage  for  her  elder  daughter. 
The  bridegroom,  who  signed  himself  James  Stuart, 

28 


The  Duchess  of  Alba 

Duke  of  Berwick  y  Alba  y  Linares,  was  descended 
from  Marshal  Berwick,  the  victor  of  Almanza,  who 
was  a  son  of  King  James  II  and  Arabella  Churchill. 
The  wedding  of  Eugenie's  sister  took  place  on  14 
February,  1844.  The  story  of  that  draught  of  poison 
which  all  but  ended  her  own  life  has  been  told  with 
varying  circumstances.  Some  say  that  Eugenie 
was  herself  passionately  in  love  with  the  Duke  of 
Alba,  and  chancing  to  overhear  his  proposal  to  her 
sister,  rushed  to  her  room  and  in  a  fit  of  madness 
swallowed  the  deadly  drink.  According  to  others 
the  nobleman  whom  she  favoured  was  the  Marquis 
of  Alcanizes,  a  friend  of  the  Duchess  of  Alba.  The 
report  of  the  attempt  at  suicide  was  mentioned  in 
the  papers  on  the  eve  of  her  wedding.  Among  the 
Spanish  suitors  for  Eugenie's  hand  before  she  and 
her  mother  returned  to  Paris  in  1849,  the  Duke  of 
Ossuna  was  named.  "  She  made  a  great  impression 
in  Madrid  society,"  wrote  M.  de  Mazade  in  the  Revue 
des  Deux  Mondes  at  the  moment  of  the  Imperial 
marriage,  "  by  her  daring  imagination  and  the  ardent 
vivacity  of  her  character.  She  impressed  one  by 
a  sort  of  virile  grace  which  might  easily  have  made 
her  a  heroine  of  romance,  and  before  assuming  the 
Imperial  diadem  she  proudly  wore  that  crown  of 
hair  whose  colour  a  Venetian  painter  would  have 
loved." 

Clara  Tschudi  quotes  the  following  description 
by  an  eye-witness  of  the  youthful  Countess  as  she 
appeared  at  a  bull-fight  in  national  costume  : — 

"  Her  slender  figure  is  set  off  by  a  costly  bodice, 
which  enhances  her  beauty  and  elegance.  Her  hand 
is  armed  with  a  riding-whip  instead  of  a  fan,  for  she 

29 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

generally  arrives  at  the  circus  on  a  wild  Andalusian 
horse,  and  in  her  belt  she  carries  a  sharp-pointed 
dagger.  Her  little  feet  are  encased  in  red  satin 
boots.  Her  head  is  crowned  with  her  broad  golden 
plaits,  interwoven  with  pearls  and  rich  flowers  j  her 
clear  brow  shines  with  youth  and  beauty,  and  her 
gentle  blue  eyes  sparkle  from  beneath  the  long  lashes 
which  almost  conceal  them.  Her  exquisitely  formed 
nose,  her  mouth,  fresher  than  a  rose-bud,  the  perfect 
oval  of  her  face,  the  loveliness  of  which  is  only 
equalled  by  her  graceful  bearing,  arouse  the  ad- 
miration of  all.  She  is  the  recognized  queen  of 
beauty.  It  is  she  who  crowns  the  victorious  torea- 
dor, and  her  white  hands  present  him  with  the 
prize  due  to  his  courage  or  agility,  while  she  accom- 
panies her  gift  with  the  most  captivating  smile." 

The  young  girl,  like  her  mother,  took  an  eager 
interest  in  politics.  It  is  said  that  the  Spanish 
statesman,  General  Narvaez,  overhearing  her  one 
day  in  earnest  argument,  interrupted  her  with  the 
remark,  "  You  ladies  ought  not  to  meddle  with  poli- 
tics, for  if  things  came  to  the  worst  you  would  not 
have  the  nerve  to  face  cold  steel."  "  Would  I  not  ?  " 
cried  Eugenie,  and  snatching  a  knife  from  the  table 
she  inflicted  a  stab  on  her  arm  !  In  the  outburst  of 
defamatory  gossip  which  assailed  the  Imperial  lady 
more  than  once  at  critical  moments  in  her  career, 
stories  were  told  of  the  careless  freedom  of  her  life  at 
Madrid.  Her  mother,  it  must  be  admitted,  had  the 
Bohemian  love  of  licence.  She  was  a  great  lady, 
with  something  of  the  gipsy  in  her  tastes  and  dis- 
position. But  she  knew  very  well,  in  Madrid,  in 
Paris,  in  London,  how  to  guard  her  beautiful  girl, 

30 


The  Empress  and  Lacordaire 

and  never  once,  during  her  long  life,  has  any  serious 
scandal  dimmed  the  fair  fame  of  the  Empress. 

It  has  been  said  that  Lacordaire  was  Eugenie's 
favourite  preacher.  She  heard  him  in  girlhood 
during  her  occasional  visits  to  Paris,  but  in  her 
married  life  she  had  no  opportunity  of  listening  to 
him.  After  the  coup  d'dat,  Lacordaire  declined  to 
preach  any  longer  at  Notre  Dame.  Writing  to  a 
friend,  he  said,  "  I  thought  it  would  not  be  possible 
for  me  to  preach  this  winter  amidst  the  silence  of 
the  press  and  of  public  opinion,  without  making 
the  pulpit  of  Notre  Dame  a  dangerous  rendezvous 
for  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  new  Govern- 
ment. The  burden  of  the  time  would  have  given 
me  a  constant  opportunity  to  strike  in  with  my 
sword  against  despotism,  and  these  strokes  would 
have  been  represented  as  heavier  than  I  meant 
them  to  be.  I  preferred  to  keep  silence.  I  thought 
this  silence  wise  and  dignified — my  way  of  mourning 
for  our  lost  liberties." 

M.  d'Haussonville,  in  his  Life  of  Lacordaire,  re- 
marks with  justice  that  it  was  the  misfortune  of  the 
Second  Empire  to  have  closed  the  mouths  of  the  men 
who  were  most  generous  in  character,  and  most  in- 
dependent in  mind.  Lacordaire  preached  one  famous 
sermon  at  Saint  Roch  in  1853,  the  year  of  the 
Empress's  marriage.  He  took  as  his  text  the  words 
"  Esto  vir,"  and  as  his  subject  "  greatness  of  char- 
acter." An  immense  congregation,  filling  nave  and 
side  chapels,  assembled  to  hear  him.  He  struck  a 
hard  blow  against  the  Bonapartes.  In  that  year  of 
the  dawning  glory  of  the  Second  Empire  he  dared 
to  say  that  Spain  held  the  illustrious  honour  of  having 

3> 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

been  the  first  cause  of  the  ruin  of  the  great  Emperor 
and  the  delivery  of  the  world.  What  did  Eugenie 
think  when  she  read  these  words  ?  The  emotion  of 
the  crowd,  says  a  listener,  was  like  the  sighing  of  the 
wind  in  the  forest.  It  was  feared  that  strong 
measures  would  be  taken  against  the  bold  Dominican, 
but  the  Government  stayed  its  hand.  "  Well  I 
know,"  said  Lacordaire,  "that  there  is  no  need  of 
an  army  to  close  my  mouth.  One  soldier  would  be 
enough.  But  for  the  defence  of  my  words,  and  the 
truth  in  them,  God  has  given  me  something  that  can 
resist  all  the  empires  of  this  world." 

The  great  preacher  died  in  November,  1861, 
The  Countess  of  Montijo  and  her  daughter  were 
at  Spa  during  the  summer  of  1849,  and  they  spent 
the  following  winter  in  Brussels.  They  settled  in 
Paris  for  the  winter  of  185 1-2,  shortly  before  the 
coup  d'tfat  of  December.  By  this  act  Louis  Napoleon, 
son  of  Louis,  King  of  Holland  (brother  of  Napoleon  I), 
and  of  Queen  Hortense,  a  daughter  of  the  Empress 
Josephine  by  her  first  marriage,  became  virtual 
sovereign  of  France.  A  year  later,  on  1  December, 
1852,  he  was  hailed  as  Emperor  at  St.  Cloud  by  the 
members  of  the  Senate  and  the  Legislative  Assembly. 
Nearly  eight  million  Frenchmen  had  given  their 
votes  for  him.  The  outlaw,  the  conspirator,  the 
prisoner  of  Ham,  was  lifted  by  a  dazzling  revolution 
to  the  throne  of  the  first  Continental  Power. 

The  first  rumour  of  Louis  Napoleon's  approaching 
marriage  was  circulated  in  1835,  and  from  his 
mother's  home,  the  castle  of  Arenenberg,  in  Switzer- 
land, he  wrote  the  following  letter,  addressed  to 
the  editor  of  a  local  newspaper  :    "  Sir, — Several 

32 


X 


i 


EARLY      PORTRAIT     OF     THE      EMPRESS      EUGENIE. 

\uguatin   I 


Napoleon  III  as  a  Bachelor 

journals  announce  my  departure  for  Portugal,  in 
the  quality  of  pretender  to  the  hand  of  the  Queen 
Doha  Maria.  However  much  I  may  feel  flattered 
at  the  idea  of  a  union  with  a  young,  pretty,  and 
virtuous  sovereign,  the  widow  of  a  cousin  who  was 
dear  to  me,  it  is  my  duty  to  contradict  the  rumour. 
I  may  add  that  in  spite  of  the  interest  which  attaches 
me  to  a  nation  which  has  just  acquired  its  liberty, 
I  should  certainly  refuse  to  share  the  throne  of  Por- 
tugal, if  by  any  chance  the  offer  were  made  me. 
The  noble  conduct  of  my  father,  who  abdicated  in 
1810  because  he  found  it  impossible  to  reconcile  the 
interests  of  France  with  those  of  Holland,  has  never 
been  eradicated  from  my  mind.  My  father  proved 
by  a  great  example  how  preferable  is  one's  native 
country  to  a  foreign  throne." 

A  union  was  at  one  time  planned  between  Louis 
Napoleon  and  his  cousin  Mathilde,  daughter  of 
Jerome,  ex-King  of  Westphalia.  While  in  England, 
he  was  said  to  be  in  love  with  Miss  Emily  Rowles, 
whom  he  met  at  Camden  House.  Everything,  it 
was  believed,  was  settled,  and  the  Prince  had  be- 
stowed on  the  lady  gifts  which  had  belonged  to  the 
Empress  Josephine  ;  but  obstacles  arose,  the  en- 
gagement was  broken  off,  and  Miss  Rowles  married 
an  Italian  marquis. 

When  the  adventurer  of  London  had  been  trans- 
formed into  the  Prince-President  of  the  French 
Republic,  more  illustrious  matches  were  proposed. 
The  Grand  Duchess  Stephanie  of  Baden,  who  was 
by  birth  a  Beauharnais  and  an  aunt  by  adoption  of 
Napoleon  III,  had  three  daughters,  of  whom  the 
eldest  married  Prince  Gustavus  Vasa,  son  of  Charles 


33 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

XIII  of  Sweden.  This  Prince  became  a  general  in 
the  Austrian  Army,  and  it  was  his  daughter,  Princess 
Carola  (afterwards  Queen  of  Saxony),  whom  Na- 
poleon desired  to  marry.  The  French  ambassador 
at  Vienna  was  charged  with  the  arrangements,  but 
could  do  nothing  without  the  consent  of  the  Austrian 
Court,  which  was  unfavourable  to  the  alliance.  The 
Powers  regarded  Napoleon  as  an  upstart  and  a 
usurper.  They  had  no  confidence  in  the  stability 
of  his  throne,  and  cruel  memories  clouded  the  thought 
of  a  Bonaparte  marriage.  Royal  houses  which  had 
been  humbled  in  the  dust  by  Napoleon's  uncle  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  send  a  daughter  to  grace  his 
Imperial  car.  Among  the  many  ambitious  projects 
that  crossed  his  mind  was  the  dream  of  a  union  with 
Princess  Mary  of  Cambridge,  and  when  this  was 
quietly  but  decidedly  negatived  by  the  Queen  and 
Prince  Albert,  he  turned  to  the  idea  of  wedding  a 
Hohenzollern  princess.  Bitterly  indeed  he  must 
have  resented  these  repeated  humiliations,  by  which 
the  reigning  families  shut  him  definitely  out  of  their 
circle.  The  mortification  was  the  keener  because 
he  well  knew  what  joy  these  repulses  must  give  to 
the  Legitimist  party  in  France,  who  looked  on  sullenly 
while  the  people,  carried  away  in  an  ecstasy  of  en- 
thusiasm, inaugurated  the  Second  Empire.  Na- 
poleon's most  experienced  counsellors  urged  him, 
in  default  of  a  royal  alliance,  to  choose  a  daughter 
of  the  old  French  nobility.  All  were  agreed  that 
the  Court  of  the  Tuileries  must  have  a  queen. 
Granier  de  Cassagnac,  in  his  memoirs,  speaks  of  the 
ardent  desire  for  a  young  Empress  which  was  felt 
by  all  classes  in  the  beginning  of  1853.     She  must 

34 


Napoleon  and  Eugenie  meet 

be  lovely,  she  must  be  Catholic,  and  it  was  felt  that 
the  Emperor  might  be  trusted  on  both  these  points. 
But  where  should  he  find  the  lady  ? 

French  writers  have  discovered  in  the  early  child- 
hood of  Eugenie  de  Montijo  a  point  of  contact  with 
her  future  husband.  On  12  November,  1836,  Louis 
Napoleon  was  led  to  Paris  as  a  prisoner  after  the 
futile  conspiracy  of  Strasburg.  He  was  brought  to 
the  house  of  M.  Delessert,  the  prefect,  and  spent 
two  hours  in  the  large  dining-room. 

In  this  room,  we  are  told,  Eugenie  and  her  sister 
took  lessons  in  gymnastics  nearly  every  morning 
with  their  friends  Cecile  and  Edouard,  the  children 
of  the  prefect.  Little  did  Napoleon  think,  says 
Imbert  de  Saint-Amand,  that  on  the  road  to  out- 
lawry he  had  spent  some  moments  in  a  room  entered 
nearly  every  day  by  the  child  destined  to  sit  with 
him  on  the  throne  of  France. 

M.  Filon,  who  wrote  from  information  supplied 
by  the  Empress,  says  that  Napoleon's  passion  for 
the  Countess  of  T6ba  dated  from  1849.  Their  first 
meeting  probably  took  place  in  London  in  1847, 
although,  as  both  had  been  tossed  about  the  world 
in  a  life  of  change  and  adventure,  there  may  have 
been  an  earlier  interview  at  some  continental 
watering-place. 

Napoleon,  as  Prince  President,  had  formed  no 
definite  projects  of  marriage.  He  had  brought 
with  him  from  London  a  beautiful  woman,  Miss 
Howard,  who  was  devotedly  attached  to  him.  M. 
Odilon  Barrot  has  reproduced  in  his  memoirs  a 
letter  written  him  by  the  Prince  apropos  of  this  lady. 
It  contains  the  following  sentence  :    "As  until  now 

35 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

my  position  has  prevented  me  from  marrying  ;  as, 
amidst  the  cares  of  government,  I  have,  alas  !  in 
my  own  country,  from  which  I  have  so  long  been 
absent,  neither  intimate  friends  nor  acquaintances 
of  childhood,  nor  relatives  who  give  me  the  sweet- 
ness of  family  life,  I  may  be  pardoned,  I  hope,  an 
affection  which  injures  nobody,  and  which  I  do 
not  seek  to  parade."  Miss  Howard  disappeared 
from  view  before  the  glories  of  the  rising  star, 
Eugenie,  Countess  of  Teba. 

Dr.  Max  Ring  quotes  the  following  letter,  written 
by  Eugenie  to  Louis  Napoleon  before  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1848  : — 

"  You  wish  to  go  to  Paris.  You  long  for  the 
possession  of  power,  to  become  Consul,  President, 
possibly  Dictator.  Suppose  you  attain  to  the  first 
of  these,  will  that  satisfy  you  ?  Will  it  appease 
your  ambition  ?  Will  you  not  aspire  still  higher  ? 
Undoubtedly  you  will.  But  how  burdensome  a 
wife  would  be  to  you  !  If,  as  you  wish,  you  become 
Emperor,  the  place  for  an  Empress  must  be  kept 
vacant.  But  if  you  are  unfortunate  in  your  plans, 
if  events  do  not  turn  out  according  to  your  wishes, 
if  France  does  not  offer  you  what  you  expect  from 
her,  then  come  back,  but  only  then,  and  I  will  give 
you  your  answer.  Remember  that  my  heart  beats 
strongly  enough  to  make  up  to  you  for  all  sorrow, 
all  disappointed  hopes." 

In  the  crisis  of  December,  185 1,  the  young 
Countess,  who  had  been  nurtured,  as  we  have  seen, 
on  the  Napoleon  legend,  wrote  to  the  Prince  and 
offered  to  place  her  whole  fortune  at  his  disposal. 
During  the  magnificent   hunting  parties  given  in 

36 


The  Diamond  Clover-Leaf 

the  closing  months  of  1852  at  Fontainebleau  and 
Compiegne,  the  Countess  of  Montijo  and  her  daugh- 
ters were  Napoleon's  guests.  Eugenie  attracted 
his  admiration  by  her  daring  and  graceful  horse- 
manship. The  prettiest  story  of  the  Compiegne 
visit  is  told  by  M.  de  Maupas.  On  a  bright  autumn 
morning  the  Emperor,  accompanied  by  a  few  guests, 
among  whom  were  Eugenie  and  her  mother,  was 
walking  in  the  park.  The  youthful  Countess  called 
attention  to  a  clover-leaf,  so  covered  with  dew-drops 
that  it  sparkled  like  an  ornament  of  diamonds. 
When  the  walk  was  over,  the  Emperor  summoned 
one  of  the  suite,  who  immediately  set  out  by  his 
orders  for  Paris.  The  next  day  he  brought  back  a 
charming  trinket,  shaped  as  a  trefoil,  every  leaf 
bearing  a  superb  diamond  dew-drop.  Napoleon 
had  ordered  that  the  clover-leaf  admired  by  his 
future  bride  should  be  cleverly  imitated  in  diamonds, 
and  that  evening,  at  a  lottery  held  among  the  guests, 
it  was  arranged  that  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo  should 
win  the  trefoil.  Count  Horace  de  Viel  Castel,  in 
his  journal  for  24  December,  1852,  mentions  that 
she  was  sought  out  and  greatly  admired  at  Court. 
Writing  on  10  January,  he  describes  a  ball  given  by 
the  Princess  Mathilde,  which  Eugenie  and  her  mother 
attended  :  "  The  Emperor  is  still  very  much  taken 
up  with  that  beautiful  young  lady,  who  is  very  ele- 
gant, very  amiable,  clever,  and  witty.  For  more 
than  an  hour  they  were  talking  together,  and  no  one 
ventured  to  disturb  them."  "  She  and  her  mother," 
he  says  again,  "  are  hoping  to  bring  off  a  marriage, 
and  all  their  diplomacy  is  directed  to  that  end. 
People    pay    court    to    Mademoiselle    de    Montijo, 

37 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

commend  themselves  to  her,  ask  for  her  influence 
on  their  behalf  with  the  Emperor.  The  ministers 
pet  her,  she  goes  to  all  the  fetes  :  she  is  at  this 
moment  the  rising  sun." 

Here  is  a  picture  of  Eugenie's  appearance  as  she 
rode  in  the  hunting  parties  at  Compiegne  :  "  Her 
dainty  figure  was  well  defined  by  a  closely-buttoned 
habit  j  the  skirt  was  long  and  wide,  over  grey  trousers. 
With  one  of  her  tiny  gloved  hands  she  held  the  reins, 
while  she  used  the  other  to  urge  on  her  excited 
Andalusian  horse  by  the  help  of  a  little  riding-whip, 
the  handle  of  which  was  set  with  pearls.  She  wore 
patent-leather  boots  with  high  heels  and  spurs. 
She  sat  her  horse  like  a  knight,  and  despised  the 
saddle  ordinarily  used  by  ladies.  Her  long  plaits 
were  arranged  under  a  felt  hat,  from  which  waved 
a  magnificent  long  ostrich  feather  fastened  by  a 
diamond  clasp.  Her  sparkling  eyes  shone  like  light- 
ning, and  the  bewitching  smile  that  played  round 
her  rosy  lips  displayed  the  whiteness  of  her  teeth." 

On  17  January,  only  a  day  or  two  before  the  official 
announcement,  Viel  Castel  says :  "  People  talk  of 
Mademoiselle  de  Montijo's  chance  of  becoming  Em- 
press of  the  French.  Why  not  ?  We  are  living  in 
the  age  of  marvels.  Nothing  surprises  me  any 
longer."  On  the  18th  he  hears  that  rooms  at  the 
Tuileries  are  to  be  ready  by  6  February  for  the  Em- 
press. "  We  shall  have  an  Empress,  then,  by  the  6th 
of  February.     Will  it  be  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo  ?  " 

Next  day  he  went  to  a  party  given  by  Princess 
Mathilde,  and  took  a  hand  at  whist  with  one  of  the 
ministers,  but  found  him  impenetrable  on  the  mys- 
tery of  the  hour.     "  Many  of  the  women  seemed 

38 


In  the  Chapel  at  Compiegne 

displeased  at  the  idea  of  calling  Mademoiselle  de 
Montij o  '  your  Majesty.'  "  Unkindly  gossips  were 
already  busy.  The  bride-elect  was  reported  to  be 
the  granddaughter  of  an  English  merchant,  who  was 
a  consul  in  Spain,  and  who  died  a  bankrupt. 

The  story  was  told  that  on  Sunday,  19  Decem- 
ber, when  the  Emperor  and  his  guests  heard  Mass 
in  the  chapel  at  Compiegne,  the  future  Empress 
kept  her  eyes  fixed  on  the  window  above  the  altar. 
It  had  been  painted  by  Ziegler,  after  designs  made 
by  Princess  Marie,  daughter  of  Louis  Philippe,  and 
represents  a  woman  in  a  violet  robe,  who  holds  a 
book  on  which  may  be  read  the  word  "  Ama " 
(love).  She  gives  her  hand  to  a  young  man  in  a 
red  robe,  who  holds  a  cross  and  looks  upward. 

Countess  Bernstorff,  writing  on  30  January,  1853, 
to  her  mother,  tells  how  she  had  met  Mademoiselle 
de  Montij o  at  St.  Cloud  and  afterwards  at  a  dinner 
at  the  Rothschilds'.  "  She  is  beautiful,  but  no  longer 
in  her  earliest  bloom,  and  has  fair  hair  with  darkly 
pencilled  eyelashes  and  eyebrows."  The  Austrian 
diplomat,  Baron  Hiibner,  had  told  the  Countess 
Bernstorff  some  time  before  the  engagement  was 
formally  announced  that  the  Countess  of  Teba  was 
likely  to  share  the  throne  of  France. 

Even  after  the  marked  attention  shown  by  Na- 
poleon to  the  lovely  Spaniard  at  the  Compiegne 
parties,  few  believed  that  he  would  offer  her  more 
than  a  morganatic  marriage,  while  it  was  hinted 
that  her  fate  would  not  differ  from  that  of  other  fair 
and  frail  beauties  who  had  won  his  affections  in  the 
years  of  exile.  Stories  were  told  of  the  resolute 
courage  with  which  Eugenie  asserted  her  position. 

39 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

At  the  close  of  a  review  in  the  court  of  the  Tuileries, 
the  Emperor  saw  her,  with  other  ladies,  watching 
him  from  a  window  of  the  palace. 

"  Tell  me  how  I  can  reach  you  I "  he  called ; 
and  she  replied  with  gay  promptitude — 

"  To  the  right,  sire,  by  way  of  the  chapel." 

"  Sire,  Imperatrice  ou  rien,"  was  her  final  word. 

That  queen  of  matchmakers,  the  Countess  of 
Montijo,  was  her  daughter's  best  aid  in  these  difficult 
days.  Viel  Castel  reports  that  when  Napoleon  first 
spoke  of  marriage,  Eugenie  said — 

"  You  must  write  yourself  to  my  mother,  who, 
loving  you  and  me  as  she  does,  and  well  under- 
standing the  distance  between  us,  might  be  tempted 
to  refuse  her  consent." 

"  Well  played  indeed  !  "  said  the  watchers  of  the 
great  game. 

In  the  curious  memoirs  of  Madame  de  la  Ferron- 
nays  there  are  a  few  notes  which  reflect  the  con- 
temptuous dislike  with  which  supporters  of  the  exiled 
Princes  regarded  the  beautiful  young  Spaniard. 
"  Her  position,  when  she  came  to  Paris,  was  a  very 
doubtful  one.  The  free-and-easy  manners  which 
are  often  to  be  found  among  the  women  of  the  South, 
and  her  want  of  powerful  connections,  had  made  it 
difficult  for  her  to  effect  an  entrance  into  good 
society.  She  had  fallen  into  the  second  rank  of  those 
foreign  women  who  are  feted  by  the  men,  but  whom 
great  ladies  avoid.  Though  she  was  invited  to  the 
dinners  and  picnic  luncheons  which  the  Vicomte  de 
la  Rochefoucauld  gave  to  the  foreign  women  in  his 
charming  place,  la  Vallee-aux-Loups,  she  was  not 
admitted  on  the  day  when  the  Countess  Sosthenes, 

40 


The  Offer  of  Marriage 

nee  Polignac,  did  the  honours  to  a  more  select  com- 
pany. Want  of  money  was  acutely  felt  in  the 
Montij  o  household,  and  indeed  on  the  very  eve  of 
the  official  announcement  of  the  marriage,  Barene, 
one  of  the  great  dressmakers  of  the  period,  had  the 
ill-luck  to  send  in  her  bill  to  the  future  Empress  by 
a  sheriff's  officer." 

Madame  de  la  Ferronnays  adds  that  Eugenie  never 
loved  the  Emperor,  and  that  her  heart  remained 
faithful  to  her  early  love,  the  Marquis  d'Alcanizes, 
who  afterwards,  as  Duke  of  Sesto,  married  the  widow 
of  M.  de  Morny.  The  story,  heard  from  one  of  the 
Empress's  friends,  that  on  the  eve  of  her  marriage 
she  said,  "  If  Alcanizes  came  to  fetch  me  even  to-day, 
I  would  fly  with  him,"  is  an  obvious  invention. 

The  crisis  in  the  Imperial  love-story  came  on  New 
Year's  Eve,  1852,  when,  at  a  party  in  the  Tuileries, 
the  wife  of  an  officer  of  high  rank  spoke  insultingly 
to  Mademoiselle  de  Montij o.  Eugenie,  who  with 
her  partner  had  given  offence  by  stepping  acci- 
dentally in  front  of  this  lady,  had  no  sooner  heard 
the  rude  words  than  she  hastened  to  the  Emperor, 
and  told  him  she  must  retire  from  a  Court  in  which 
she  was  liable  to  insolent  attacks. 

"  I  will  avenge  you,"  cried  the  Emperor,  and  the 
next  day  he  sent  to  the  Countess  of  Montij  o  an 
official  request  for  her  daughter's  hand  in  marriage. 

His  relatives  were  violently  opposed  to  the  choice, 
as  they,  like  the  leading  French  statesmen,  wished 
a  dynastic  alliance.  Princess  Mathilde  threw  her- 
self at  her  cousin's  feet  and  vainly  implored  him 
to  renounce  his  dangerous  passion. 

Prince  Jerome  Napoleon,   her  brother,   was   the 

41 


Eugenie's  Girlhood 

bridegroom  destined  by  the  old  ex-King  of  West- 
phalia for  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo.  Her  fortune, 
as  well  as  her  beauty,  was  an  attraction  to  father 
and  son.  Long  years  afterwards,  Prince  Napoleon 
told  M.  Lengle  of  his  father's  intention,  adding  that 
he  was  not  disinclined  to  the  alliance,  but  that  his 
cousin,  then  Prince  President,  had  interfered.  This 
early  lover  was  to  prove  in  after  years  Eugenie's 
most  remorseless  enemy. 

The  Emperor  was  not  so  intoxicated  by  his  love 
as  to  abandon  all  thoughts  of  prudence.  He  warned 
Eugenie  of  the  perils  of  the  position  he  offered  her. 

"  It  is  only  fair,"  he  said,  "  that  I  should  set  be- 
fore you  the  whole  truth." 

He  spoke  of  his  unpopularity  with  the  higher 
classes,  the  malevolence  of  the  Great  Powers,  the 
possibility  of  assassination.  At  the  moment  he  was 
the  idol  of  the  people,  but  their  favour  might  quickly 
change,  and  if  disaffection  began,  it  might  spread  to 
the  army.  Should  the  soldiers  waver  in  their 
allegiance,  the  ruler  who  had  said,  "  The  Empire  is 
peace,"  might  be  compelled  to  make  war  in  self- 
defence.  Eugenie,  we  may  be  sure,  answered  with 
high-hearted  and  generous  words.  These  ghosts 
that  haunted  the  paths  of  the  future  had  no  terrors 
if  she  might  meet  them  by  her  husband's  side. 
Ancient  legend  told  that  when  death  or  disaster 
threatened  a  member  of  the  lordly  house  of  Kirk- 
patrick,  a  white  swan  was  seen  upon  the  lake  at 
Closeburn.  We  may  pardon  a  daughter  of  the 
Kirkpatricks  if  at  this  moment  she  saw  the  lake  of 
life  lying  blue  and  unruffled  in  the  sunshine,  without 
even  the  shadow  of  a  white  swan  upon  its  bosom. 

42 


CHAPTER    III 

THE   IMPERIAL  MARRIAGE 

The  Imperial  engagement  made  public — English  comments — The 
Emperor's  speech — Popularity  of  the  marriage — The  civil 
wedding — The  ceremony  at  Notre  Dame. 

THE  secret  of  Napoleon's  engagement  was 
amazingly  well  kept.  On  Wednesday,  12 
January,  1853,  a  grand  ball  was  given  at  the  Tuil- 
eries.  Invitations  had  been  sent  to  three  thousand 
guests,  including  all  the  principal  members  of  the 
English  colony.  The  Emperor,  wearing  a  general's 
uniform,  with  white  breeches  and  white  silk  stock- 
ings, opened  the  ball  with  Lady  Cowley,  wife  of  the 
English  Ambassador.  The  Times  correspondent 
noted  that  he  danced  also  with  his  cousin,  Princess 
Mathilde,  and  with  the  Countess  of  Teba,  "  the  latter 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  in  Spain."  He 
then  sat  down,  with  the  Grand  Chamberlain  seated 
or  standing  behind  him,  and  looked  on  at  others 
dancing,  or  walked  about  with  a  lady  leaning  on  his 
arm.  Lord  Cowley  was  much  in  Napoleon's  com- 
pany during  the  evening,  but  no  hint  of  the  forth- 
coming event  found  its  way  into  the  London  papers. 
On  13  January  the  Daily  News  published  the 
following  statement  from  its  well-informed  Paris 
correspondent  : — 

"  It  is  rumoured  that  the  projected  match  be- 

43 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

tween  Napoleon  and  a  princess  of  Hohenzollern  is 
broken  off.  I  hear  that  this  match  is  still  on  the 
tapis,  the  Court  of  the  Tuileries  professing  the 
greatest  indifference  to  Prussian  interference  in  this 
matter,  and  a  determination  to  carry  the  thing 
through  against  all  opposition." 

Imbert  de  Saint-Amand,  courtliest  of  authors, 
says  that  people  did  not  begin  talking  of  the  Em- 
peror's marriage  until  after  the  Tuileries  ball.  On 
1 6  January  the  Marchioness  de  Contades  wrote 
to  her  father,  the  Marshal  de  Castellane,  "  You  must 
hear,  even  so  far  away,  the  echo  of  the  rumours  of 
Paris,  where  nothing  is  talked  of  but  the  marriage 
of  the  Emperor  and  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo. 
Well,  between  ourselves,  that  might  happen.  The 
Emperor  has  conceived  a  very  violent  passion  for 
her,  and  he  seems  to  me  to  take  the  thing  quite  in 
earnest.  As  for  her,  she  conducts  herself  with  re- 
serve and  dignity.  From  the  political  point  of  view 
this  marriage  seems  at  the  first  glance  to  have  in- 
conveniences ;  but  if  it  does  not  take  place,  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  the  Emperor  will  not 
marry  at  all,  seeing  that  his  repugnance  to  marriage 
up  till  now  has  been  but  too  well  proven,  and  that 
certain  old  English  chains,  which  are  still  very  near, 
and  which  are  the  terror  of  those  who  love  him,  may 
restrain  him." 

Of  the  Countess  of  Teba  this  lady  added,  "  The 
young  girl  is  pretty,  good,  and  witty,  and  along  with 
this  I  believe  she  has  much  energy  and  nobility  of 
soul.  I  have  been  watching  her  a  good  deal  of  late, 
and  I  have  observed  nothing  but  what  is  good." 

The  Countess  of  Hatzfeldt,  the  other   daughter 

44 


Disappointed  Relatives 

of  Marshal  de  Castellane,  whose  husband  was  at 
that  time  Prussian  minister  in  Paris,  wrote  to  her 
father  : 

"  They  are  talking  in  the  city  of  the  Emperor's 
marriage  with  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo  ;  this  news 
is  not  confirmed.  If  it  is  true,  he  will  at  least  have 
a  beautiful  wife  ;  that  is  something  for  him.  It 
means  preferment  by  choice." 

Paris  correspondents  were  more  occupied  that 
week  with  a  Bourse  crisis  than  with  the  Emperor's 
wedding.  Even  in  the  circle  of  his  nearest  relatives 
the  first  whispers  of  the  truth  were  received  with 
incredulity.  Baron  du  Casse,  an  aide-de-camp  of 
old  King  Jerome,  says  that  when  he  brought  the 
report  on  the  evening  of  21  January  he  was  greeted 
with  a  shout  of  derision. 

"  What  nonsense  !  Don't  tell  me  stuff  of  that 
sort ;   I  forbid  it." 

'  But  your  Highness  asked  what  people  are  saying 
in  my  club.  If  you  are  angry  when  I  repeat  their 
gossip,  I  will  never  tell  you  anything  more." 

"  No,  no,"  said  the  ex-King ;  "  but  you  must 
not  spread  ridiculous  rumours." 

Next  morning  Baron  du  Casse  was  summoned  to 
his  master's  bedroom. 

"  Well,"  said  Jerome,  "it  is  true  after  all.  Louis 
is  to  marry  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo.  Order  my 
state  carriage  for  eleven.  We  must  be  at  the  Tuil- 
eries  by  noon." 

The  ministers  of  the  Crown  had  been  informed 
privately  of  the  Emperor's  intention  early  in  Janu- 
ary, but  he  and  they  doubtless  saw  the  expediency 
of  keeping  the  news  from  the  aged  Jerome,  whose 

45 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

son,  Prince  Napoleon,  might  expect  to  succeed  to 
the  throne  if  the  Emperor  left  no  child. 

In  the  Moniteur  for  19  January  it  was  announced 
that  the  leading  councillors  of  state  would  meet 
on  Saturday,  22  January,  at  the  Tuileries  to  re- 
ceive a  communication  from  the  Emperor  in  relation 
to  his  marriage. 

The  engagement  was  announced  by  the  English 
papers  on  Friday,  21  January,  almost  every  leader- 
writer  expressing  astonishment  at  the  Emperor's 
choice.  The  Times  remarked  that  nothing  so  sur- 
prising had  occurred  since  Madame  de  Sevigne  ex- 
hausted the  language  of  amazement  in  telling  of 
La  Grande  Mademoiselle's  engagement  to  M.  de 
Lauzun.  The  bride's  name  was  given  as  Donna 
Eugenia  Montijos.  The  Times  leader-writer  con- 
tinued : — 

"  After  an  intimacy  with  the  Emperor  of  some 
months'  duration,  during  which  the  young  Countess 
of  Teba  had  attracted  a  considerable  amount  of 
attention,  a  sense  of  what  was  due  to  her  own  repu- 
tation appears  to  have  led  the  lady  and  her  mother 
to  announce  their  intended  return  to  Madrid,  since 
it  was  only  as  the  consort  of  the  Emperor  that  she 
was  prepared  to  accept  his  homage.  This  blow  had 
its  effect,  and  the  imperial  Pamela  obtains  her  re- 
ward ;  in  spite  of  some  passages  which  were  thought 
to  indicate  a  different  conclusion,  but  which  have 
left  no  unfavourable  trace  on  the  fame  of  the  future 
Empress." 

Apropos  of  this  passage  it  should  be  noted  that 
the  Countess  of  Montijo  had  sought  advice  from 
her  cousin,  M.  de  Lesseps,  about  the  course  she  ought 

46 


The  News  in  England 

to  follow  when  her  daughter  was  receiving  Na- 
poleon's compromising  attentions.  Lesseps  replied 
in  one  word,  "  Go." 

The  Times  and  the  other  English  papers  wrote 
sympathetically  of  Napoleon's  choice.  It  was 
pointed  out  that  Louis  XIV,  the  greatest  King  who 
ever  reigned  at  Versailles,  had  married  the  widow 
Scarron  (Madame  de  Maintenon)  and  lived  with  her 
as  his  clandestine  queen.  France,  it  was  said,  is 
a  new  world ;  why  should  not  its  monarch  in- 
augurate new  social  customs  ?  Punch  appeared 
with  a  fresh  version  of  the  "Spanish  Ladye's  Love" : — 

"  Gentle  ladye,  show  some  pitie ; 

I'm  an  Emperor — no  lesse," 
But  the  ladye  was  too  wittie 
To  be  caught  with  chaff,  I  guesse. 
"  There's  one  way  from  my  chains  yourself  to  free, 
My  gallant  Emperor — that  is,  to  marry  me." 

•  •  •  •  • 

"  On  French  thrones  are  many  changes, 

Quickly  fall  who  quickly  rise — 
Then  the  way  you've  been  behaving, 
Prisoning,  shooting,  telling  lies." 
"  A  better  man  henceforth  I  mean  to  be, 
And  all  the  credit  of  the  change  they  will  set  down  to  thee." 

Napoleon  had  lived  so  recently  in  somewhat  sordid 
exile  in  London  that  our  newspapers  had  scarcely 
yet  learned  to  treat  him  respectfully.  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  with  whom  the  French  ruler  was  a  favourite, 
wrote  to  his  brother  : — 

"  Napoleon's  marriage  seems  to  me  a  most 
sensible  one.  He  had  no  chance  of  a  political 
alliance  of  any  value,  or  of  sufficient  importance  to 
counterbalance  the  annoyance  of  an  ugly  or  epileptic 

47 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

wife  whom  he  had  never  seen  till  she  was  presented 
to  him  as  a  bride,  and  he  was  quite  right  to  take  a 
wife  whom  he  knew  and  liked.  I  admire  the  frank- 
ness with  which  he  declares  himself  a  parvenu,  and 
the  mention  of  that  truth,  however  it  may  shock  the 
prejudices  of  Vienna  and  Petersburg,  will  endear 
him  to  the  bulk  of  the  French  nation." 

Events  moved  swiftly  after  the  first  announce- 
ment. On  Saturday,  22  January,  the  Emperor 
summoned  the  Senate  and  the  Legislative  Chamber, 
with  the  Council  of  State,  to  meet  him  in  the  Throne 
Room  of  the  Tuileries.  There  he  delivered  a  re- 
markable and  original  address,  spoken,  as  a  memoir- 
writer  tells  us,  with  a  strong  German  accent.  He 
began  by  expressing  doubts  as  to  the  value  of  royal 
alliances,  which  often  substituted  family  interests 
for  those  of  the  nation.  Among  royal  marriages, 
one  only  secured  his  approval,  that  of  Napoleon  I 
with  Marie  Louise.  In  the  face  of  Europe  he  frankly 
accepted  the  position  of  a  parvenu  monarch. 

The  lady  whom  I  have  chosen,"  he  continued, 

is  of  lofty  birth.  French  by  education,  by  the 
memory  of  the  blood  shed  by  her  father  in  the  cause 
of  the  Empire,  she  enjoys  as  a  Spaniard  the  advantage 
of  having  no  family  in  France  to  whom  honours  and 
dignities  must  be  given.  Endowed  with  the  best 
qualities  of  heart  and  mind,  she  will  be  the  ornament 
of  the  throne,  and  in  the  day  of  peril  one  of  its  cour- 
ageous defenders.  A  devout  Catholic,  she  will  join 
her  prayers  to  mine  for  the  welfare  of  France ; 
gracious  and  good,  she  will,  I  firmly  hope,  revive  in 
the  same  position  the  virtues  of  the  Empress  Jose- 
phine. ...  I  come,  then,  gentlemen,  to  say  this  to 

48 


11 
it 


"  Vive  Plmperatrice  !  " 

France  :  I  have  preferred  a  wife  whom  I  love  and 
respect  to  an  unknown  consort  through  whom  I 
might  have  won  advantages  mingled  with  sacrifice. 
Soon  I  shall  go  to  Notre  Dame,  and  there  present 
the  Empress  to  the  people  and  the  army  ;  the  con- 
fidence they  have  in  me  will  secure  their  sympathy 
for  her  whom  I  have  chosen  ;  and  you,  sirs,  when 
you  learn  to  know  her,  will  be  convinced  that  I 
have  once  more  been  inspired  by  Providence." 

The  speech  was  eagerly  discussed  in  Paris.  Peo- 
ple remarked,  not  unnaturally,  that  the  contempt 
for  royal  alliances  was  like  the  fox's  scorn  of  the 
grapes,  but  the  general  impression  was  favourable. 
There  was  hardly  a  better  ceremonial  orator  in 
Europe  than  Napoleon  ;  no  monarch  of  his  time 
possessed  the  same  gift  of  lofty,  eloquent,  pathetic, 
and  tactful  speech.  The  dreamer  translated  his 
reveries  into  golden  words.  His  depreciation  of 
ancient  lineage  did  not  discourage  the  papers  from 
minute  heraldic  researches  into  the  titles  of  Made- 
moiselle de  Montij o.  It  was  discovered  that  she 
was  three  times  a  grandee  of  Spain,  by  the  names 
of  Teba,  Banos,  and  Mora,  and  that  through  her 
mother  she  was  descended  from  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  Scottish  houses. 

King  Jerome  and  his  son,  who  had  stood  on  the 
Emperor's  right  and  left  in  the  Throne  Room,  went 
from  the  Tuileries  to  No.  12,  Place  Vendome,  and 
called  oh  the  bride-elect  and  her  mother.  It  had 
been  noted  that  some  of  the  statesmen  who  most 
strongly  opposed  the  marriage  were  loudest  in  shout- 
ing "  Vive  lTmperatrice,"  and  the  Emperor's  uncle 
and  cousin  had  at  least  the  grace  to  accept  in  silence 

K  49 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

the  accomplished  fact.  Baron  du  Casse,  who  ac- 
companied the  princes  on  this  visit,  says  they  found 
the  future  Empress  seated  on  a  high  stool  in  the 
middle  of  the  drawing-room,  dressed  rather  care- 
lessly in  a  morning  gown.  "  Her  sunny,  fair  hair 
seemed  to  me  very  beautiful,  and  her  teeth  were 
almost  too  good.  .  .  .  Nothing  could  be  finer  than 
her  figure  and  her  shoulders." 

M.  Thiers,  who  thought  Napoleon  the  most  medi- 
ocre of  men,  sneeringly  observed  that  the  Emperor 
had  secured  himself  against  the  chances  of  the  future, 
for  if  he  lost  his  throne  he  would  at  least  be  a  grandee 
of  Spain  ! 

The  bride-elect  behaved  in  these  difficult  days  with 
a  dignified  modesty  which  won  all  hearts.  The 
Foreign  Minister,  M.  Drouyn  de  Lhuys,  who  had 
wished  for  a  dynastic  alliance,  handed  in  his  resig- 
nation, which  the  Emperor  refused  to  accept.  "  Go 
and  see  the  Countess  of  Teba,"  said  Napoleon. 
Eugenie  received  the  statesman  with  graceful  cour- 
tesy. "  I  thank  you,"  she  said,  "  for  the  advice 
you  gave  the  Emperor  about  his  marriage."  "  Then 
His  Majesty  has  betrayed  me  ?  "  cried  the  minister 
in  confusion.  "  Not  at  all,  monsieur  ;  but  I  know 
the  counsel  you  gave,  which  expressed  my  own  feel- 
ing. Like  you,  I  wished  the  Emperor  to  consider 
first  the  interests  of  his  throne." 

A  gossip-monger  carried  the  news  of  the  engage- 
ment to  Lamartine,  thinking  that  he  would  disap- 
prove. Instead,  the  poet  exclaimed,  "  The  Emperor 
has  realized  the  most  beautiful  dream  possible  to 
man ;  to  raise  the  woman  he  loves  above  all  other 


women." 


5° 


The  Bride's  Generosity 

Immediately  after  the  announcement  that  the 
wedding  would  take  place  at  Notre  Dame  on  30 
January,  Madame  de  Monti  jo  and  her  daughter  left 
the  Place  Vendome  and  took  up  their  residence  in 
the  Elysee  Palace.  The  elder  Countess  wrote  to  a 
friend  on  the  subject  of  her  daughter's  engagement : 
"  I  do  not  know  whether  I  should  be  happy  or  whether 
I  should  weep.  How  many  mothers  envy  me  who 
could  not  understand  the  tears  with  which  my  eyes 
are  rilled  !  Eugenie  is  to  be  queen  over  your  France, 
and  in  spite  of  myself  I  remember  that  with  you 
queens  have  but  little  happiness.  In  spite  of  myself 
the  thought  of  Marie  Antoinette  takes  possession 
of  me,  and  I  wonder  if  my  child  may  not  have  the 
same  fate." 

Mother  and  daughter  lived  very  quietly  through 
the  week  before  the  wedding.  Once  or  twice,  when 
shopping  in  the  Rue  Vivienne,  Eugenie  was  cheered 
by  the  crowd.  The  papers  told  new  stories  each 
morning  of  her  romantic  generosity.  She  had  been 
seen  flinging  purses  to  beggars  and  wrapping  up 
poor  children  in  satin  cloaks  !  If  an  accident  hap- 
pened in  any  part  of  the  town,  forthwith  a  tale 
would  be  invented  that  the  Countess  of  Teba  was 
passing  at  the  moment,  and  that  she  hastened  to 
succour  the  distressed  household.  One  act  of  noble 
generosity  won  the  hearts  of  the  people  more  than 
all  these  legends.  The  city  of  Paris  had  voted 
600,000  francs  for  a  set  of  diamonds  as  a  wedding 
gift.  Eugenie,  in  a  simple  and  touching  letter  to 
the  Prefect,  asked  that  the  money  might  be  devoted 
to  a  charitable  purpose. 

"  I   feel  deeply,"   she  wrote,   "  the  generous  de- 

51 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

cision  come  to  by  the  Municipal  Council  of  Paris, 
which  thus  manifests  its  sympathetic  adhesion  to 
the  union  which  the  Emperor  contracts.  I  never- 
theless experience  a  painful  feeling  at  thinking  that 
the  first  public  act  attached  to  my  name  at  the  mo- 
ment of  my  marriage  should  be  a  considerable  ex- 
pense to  the  city  of  Paris.  Permit  me  therefore 
not  to  accept  your  gift,  however  flattering  it  may 
be  for  me  ;  you  will  give  me  greater  happiness  by 
employing  in  charities  the  sum  you  had  fixed  on 
for  the  purchase  of  the  ornaments  which  the  Muni- 
cipal Council  wished  to  present  to  me.  My  desire 
is  that  my  marriage  shall  not  be  the  occasion  of  any 
fresh  charge  for  the  country  to  which  I  henceforth 
belong ;  and  the  only  thing  to  which  I  aspire  is 
to  share  with  the  Emperor  the  love  and  esteem  of 
the  French  people." 

The  city  used  the  600,000  francs  to  found  and  en- 
dow a  school  for  the  education  of  young  girls  of  the 
poorer  classes.  It  was  agreed  that,  in  honour  of  the 
Empress,  the  house  should  bear  her  name. 

Baron  Haussmann,  who  was  at  the  time  Prefect 
of  the  Gironde,  says  that  the  bride's  generous  con- 
duct in  refusing  the  diamonds  was  so  much  admired 
by  the  people  of  Bordeaux  that  they  voted  50,000 
francs  to  establish  a  charitable  institution  for  them- 
selves, and  placed  it  under  her  patronage.  The 
Empress  was  well  known  and  much  admired  in  the 
south.  She  had  frequently  visited  Bayonne  and 
Biarritz  with  her  mother,  and  Baron  Haussmann 
remembered  her  at  the  Prefect's  ball  in  Bordeaux. 

M.  de  Maupas  tells  us  that  the  marriage  was  highly 
popular  with  the  masses,  and  we  can  readily  be- 
lieve it.     A  glow  of  mediaeval  chivalry  surrounded 

52 


A  Queen  of  Beauty 

the  event.  The  crowd  at  a  tournament  was  ever 
ready  to  acclaim  the  Queen  of  Love  and  Beauty. 
Napoleon,  like  Ivanhoe  at  Ashby,  had  sunk  the  point 
of  his  lance,  with  the  coronet  which  it  supported, 
at  the  feet  of  the  fairest  girl.  A  beauty-loving 
people  rejoiced  in  the  triumph  of  beauty.  And  on 
that  point,  at  least,  there  was  no  dispute.  The 
Empress  Eugenie,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  was 
the  loveliest  woman  of  her  time.  She  was  of  middle 
height,  slightly  and  gracefully  built,  in  complexion 
a  blonde  ardente.  The  dark  blue  eyes  were  shaded  by 
long  lashes,  the  golden  hair  lay  in  soft  curls  on  the 
low  white  forehead.  Well-marked  eyebrows  and 
drooping  lids  gave  character  to  a  faultless  face. 
The  nose  was  slightly  arched,  the  cheeks  and  chin 
were  firmly  yet  delicately  moulded,  the  curved  lips 
expressed  refinement,  gentleness,  and  sympathy. 
It  seemed  as  if  old  Scotland  and  old  Spain  had 
mingled  love-potions  to  produce  this  perfect  flower. 
Her  shoulders,  arms,  and  neck  were  the  delight  of 
artists  ;  feet  and  hands  were  small  and  queenly. 
The  daughters  of  Andalusia  are  often  browned  and 
dimmed  before  the  age  of  thirty  ;  she  came  of  a 
stock  in  which  beauty  lasted  long.  The  Empress 
has  been  compared  to  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  but  the 
author  of  that  suggestion  was  certainly  no  flatterer. 
There  is  a  purity,  a  tenderness,  a  capacity  for  emotion 
in  her  gentle  face  which  we  seek  vainly  in  her  six- 
teenth-century rival.  She  was  worthy  of  those 
sweetest  love-lines  in  early  French  poetry — ad- 
dressed by  King  Henry  II  to  Diane  de  Poitiers  : — 

Plus  ferme  foy  ne  fut  onques  juree 
A  nouveau  prince  (6  ma  seule  princesse) 
Que  mon  amour,  quy  vous  sera  sans  cesse 
Contre  le  terns  et  la  mort  asseuree. 

53 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

De  fosse  creuse,  ou  de  tour  bien  muree 
N'a  point  besoin  de  ma  foy  la  fortresse, 
Dont  je  vous  fy  dame,  roine  et  maystresse, 
Pour  ce  qu'elle  est  d'eternelle  duree 

Even  Bismarck  confessed  to  Jules  Favre  that  he 
had  never  in  his  life  been  so  dazzled  by  feminine 
loveliness  as  when  the  Empress  Eugenie  received 
his  master,  the  King  of  Prussia,  in  the  grand  vestibule 
of  Compiegne  Palace. 

The  depth  and  sincerity  of  Napoleon's  affection 
for  his  wife  may  be  understood  from  the  anony- 
mous article  he  contributed  fifteen  years  later,  on 
the  eve  of  her  birthday,  to  Le  Dix  D^cembre  (15 
December,  1868).  The  manuscript  was  found  in 
his  autograph  in  the  Tuileries  after  the  fall  of  the 
Empire.  He  is  the  authority  for  the  story  that  she 
had  proposed,  in  girlish  enthusiasm,  to  carry  con- 
solation to  the  captive  of  Ham,  and  that  her  romantic 
mother  was  not  disinclined  to  favour  the  idea.  The 
Emperor  goes  on :  "  This  sorely  tried  Prince  she 
was  to  see  some  years  later,  not  in  the  confinement 
of  a  dungeon,  but  raised  by  national  acclamation 
to  the  head  of  a  great  State.  She  was  to  exercise 
on  him  the  attraction  of  her  beauty,  of  her  intellect, 
and  of  the  supreme  nobility  of  her  sentiments.  She 
was  to  become  a  part  of  his  existence  and  to  share 
his  destiny." 

The  Imperial  journalist  tells  his  readers  that  as  a 
girl  Eugenie  was  an  earnest  student  of  the  works  of 
Fourier,  and  was  known  to  her  companions  as  La 
Phalansterienne.  The  word  refers  to  the  Phalan- 
stery in  which  the  social  philosopher  wished  to 
house  his  "  Phalanx  "  of  three   hundred   families, 

54 


Eugenie  as  Student 

drawn  partly  from  the  rich  and  partly  from  the 
poorer  classes.  Napoleon  remarks  on  his  wife's 
ardent  interest  in  charitable  institutions  and  in  the 
life  and  labour  of  the  people,  and  here,  without 
doubt,  these  two  were  one.  The  Emperor,  says 
M.  de  la  Gorce,  was  sometimes  dreamy  when  states- 
men talked  politics  in  his  presence,  but  his  attention 
was  instantly  awake  if  they  spoke  of  some  house  of 
mercy  which  needed  support,  or,  above  all,  of  some 
private  individual  in  misfortune.  "  His  kind  heart 
was  moved — too  quickly,  perhaps,  for  he  gave  with- 
out reckoning,  without  examination,  without  con- 
trol." 

In  the  article  in  Le  Dix  Decembre  the  Emperor 
is  almost  amusingly  anxious  to  prove  that  his  lovely 
consort  concerned  herself  with  serious  subjects. 
"  We  may  say  that  there  is  no  economical  or  finan- 
cial question  of  which  she  is  ignorant.  It  is  charm- 
ing to  hear  her  discuss  these  difficult  problems  with 
men  of  authority.  Literature,  history,  and  art  are 
also  frequently  the  subject  of  her  conversations.  .  .  . 
Her  language,  sometimes  incorrect,  is  full  of  pictur- 
esqueness  and  life.  .  .  .  Pious  without  being  bigoted, 
well  informed  but  not  pedantic,  she  talks  on  all 
subjects  with  perfect  unrestraint." 

We  have  here  almost  the  picture  of  an  Imperial 
Mrs.  Wititterly,  and  her  husband  adds  (it  is  his  one 
criticism)  :  "  Perhaps  she  is  too  fond  of  discussion. 
Very  sprightly  in  her  nature,  she  often  lets  herself 
be  carried  away  by  her  feelings,  which  have  more 
than  once  excited  enmities,  but  her  exaggerations 
have  always  as  their  foundation  the  love  of  good." 
In  a  charming  final  passage  the  Emperor  speaks  of 

55 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

Eugenie's  tender  solicitude  for  their  son.  She  de- 
sired that  the  Prince  Imperial  should  receive  a 
manly  education,  and  herself  watched  daily  over 
his  progress.  "  She  helped  day  by  day  in  that  in- 
tellectual growth  which  in  one  who  inherits  so  high 
a  fortune  is  the  pledge  of  the  most  brilliant  future." 
Three  years  after  these  words  were  written  the  high 
fortune  was  dissipated,  the  sun  of  that  future  had 
gone  down  at  noon. 

In  addition  to  the  bride's  rare  gifts  of  person  and 
intellect,  the  French  people  recognized  with  approval 
her  genuine  if  somewhat  narrow  piety.  Here,  again, 
she  was  in  fullest  sympathy  with  her  husband.  Not- 
withstanding many  lapses  of  conduct,  Napoleon  was 
a  sincere  believer.  He  threw  his  influence  on  the 
side  of  the  Church,  addressed  the  higher  clergy  with 
almost  exaggerated  deference,  pleased  the  priests 
by  a  regulation  for  the  stricter  observance  of  Sunday, 
and  on  great  occasions  used  the  language  of  humble 
and  fervent  faith.  To  the  Bishop  of  Bayonne,  who 
congratulated  him  on  his  birthday,  he  made  this 
reply  :  "  It  is  customary,  monseigneur,  for  the  whole 
nation  to  celebrate  the  sovereign's  fete  on  a  pre- 
scribed day.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  sovereign  on  his 
side  to  think  well  whether  he  has  done  all  that  in  him 
lies  to  deserve  those  many- voiced  honours  and  prayers. 
It  is  his  duty,  above  all,  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  to 
ask  Heaven,  through  the  intercession  of  its  conse- 
crated ministers,  to  bless  his  efforts,  to  enlighten  his 
conscience,  to  give  him  perpetually  the  power  to  do 
good  and  to  resist  evil.  I  thank  you,  monseigneur, 
for  the  prayers  that  you  offer  to  Heaven  for  me. 
Ask  also,  if  you  please,  the  Divine  protection  for  our 

56 


The  Pope  and  the  Empire 

armies,  for  in  praying  for  those  who  fight  and  for 
those  who  suffer  you  are  also  praying  for  me." 

At  the  time  when  his  marriage  was  announced, 
Napoleon  had  set  his  heart  on  winning,  like  his 
uncle,  the  highest  honour  from  the  Pope. 

As  Pius  VII  had  come  to  Paris  to  crown  Napoleon 
I,  he  hoped  to  induce  Pius  IX  to  undertake  the 
same  journey  for  his  sake.  A  curious  account  of 
the  negotiations  is  given  by  M.  de  la  Gorce.  They 
were  conducted  at  Rome  by  Mgr.  de  Bonnechose, 
at  that  time  Bishop  of  Nancy,  and  by  a  young  priest 
of  high  birth  and  saintly  character,  M.  de  Segur,  one 
of  the  chief  ornaments  of  the  French  Church  under 
the  Second  Empire.  A  formal  letter  of  invitation  to 
the  Pope  was  addressed  under  cover  to  M.  de  Segur. 
After  reading  it,  Pius  cried,  "  Here's  a  splendid 
letter  " — "Ecco  una  tnagnifica  letter  a  " — and  at  once 
proceeded  to  inquire  what  price  Napoleon  would 
pay  for  a  coronation  in  Paris.  Would  he  abolish 
those  "  Organic  Articles "  which  were  so  hateful 
to  the  Papacy  ?  "  Every  one  of  these  articles," 
said  the  Pope,  "  is  a  slap  in  the  face  for  me."  There 
were  serious  difficulties  in  the  way.  By  crowning 
Napoleon  he  must  offend  Austria,  which  had  just 
concluded  a  Concordat  favourable  to  the  Church. 
The  clever  young  abbe  suggested  that  after  crown- 
ing the  French  Emperor,  Pius  might  proceed  to 
Vienna  and  crown  Francis  Joseph. 

"  Well,  then,  we  shall  go,"  replied  the  Pope. 
"  Only  if  the  Emperor  wishes  me  to  come  to  France, 
he  must  open  the  door.  Let  him  abolish  every 
regulation,  every  decree,  which  is  contrary  to  the 
Concordat.     I   will  allow  three  months  to  pass  so 

57 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

that  may  there  be  no  appearance  of  a  bargain.  And 
then  let  the  carriage  be  ready — E  poi  in  carrozza  !  " 

Difficulties  arose  in  Paris  and  Rome.  The  Pope 
feared  Austria,  the  Emperor  could  draw  no  con- 
cessions from  his  ministers,  and  the  lapse  of  time, 
with  the  victories  of  the  Crimean  War,  convinced 
him  that  his  throne  was  secure  without  the  Pope's 
intervention.  The  early  blindness  which  fell  upon 
M.  de  Segur  removed  from  the  Vatican  his  ablest 
advocate.  So  it  happened  that  the  most  glorious 
religious  ceremony  of  Napoleon's  life  was  not  a  coro- 
nation, but  the  marriage  at  Notre  Dame. 

His  enormous  popularity,  apart  from  all  other 
considerations,  disposed  the  people  to  accept  his 
bride.  The  Bonapartes,  like  the  Guises  of  old,  came 
as  princes  from  fairyland.  From  age  to  age,  the 
French  have  thrown  themselves  at  the  feet  of  such 
astonishing  magicians.  Michelet's  remark,  in  his 
chapters  on  the  Dukes  Francis  and  Henry  of  Guise, 
that  a  hero  was  a  first  necessity  for  the  populace 
of  Paris,  corresponds  exactly  with  a  French  bishop's 
admission  about  the  early  days  of  the  Empire.  "  In 
1852  France  wanted  a  Charlemagne  so  intensely 
that  she  may  be  pardoned  for  her  determination 
to  find,  even  by  self-deception,  a  Charlemagne  in 
Napoleon  III." 

On  Saturday,  29  January,  1853,  a  week  after 
the  speech  in  the  Throne  Room,  Court  carriages 
went  to  the  Elysee  to  bring  the  bride  to  the  Tuileries 
for  the  civil  wedding.  On  the  27th,  as  announced 
in  the  Moniteur,  Napoleon  and  Eugenie  had  re- 
ceived Holy  Communion  in  the  chapel  of  the  palace. 
It  was  past  eight  o'clock  on  a  clear  winter  evening 

58 


The  Civil  Wedding 

when  the  acclamations  of  the  people  announced 
the  arrival  of  the  bride.  Officials  received  her  at 
the  foot  of  the  staircase,  and  at  the  entrance  to  the 
first  salon  she  was  welcomed  by  Prince  Napoleon 
and  Princess  Mathilde,  who  led  her  to  the  drawing- 
room,  in  which  the  Emperor  waited.  Eugenie  wore 
a  white  silk  robe,  covered  with  costly  Alencon  lace, 
and  a  diamond  and  sapphire  belt  which  had  belonged 
to  the  Empress  Marie  Louise.  Napoleon's  orna- 
ments were  the  collar  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  worn 
by  his  uncle  the  Emperor,  and  the  collar  of  the 
Golden  Fleece  which  belonged  to  Charles  V.  The 
knot  was  tied  by  M.  Fould,  Minister  of  State,  in  the 
Hall  of  the  Marshals.  The  register  used  was  that 
of  Napoleon  I,  the  last  event  noted  in  it  being  the 
birth  of  the  King  of  Rome.  The  questions  and 
responses  were  as  follows  : — 

"  Sire,  does  your  Majesty  declare  that  he  takes 
in  marriage  her  Excellency  Mademoiselle  Eugenie 
de  Montijo,  Comtesse  de  Teba,  here  present  ?  " 

"  I  declare  that  I  take  in  marriage  Her  Excellency 
Mademoiselle  Eugenie  de  Montijo,  Comtesse  de 
Teba,  here  present.'' 

"  Mademoiselle  Eugenie  de  Montijo,  Comtesse 
de  Teba,  does  your  Excellency  declare  that  she 
takes  in  marriage  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
III,  here  present  ?  " 

"  I  declare  that  I  take  in  marriage  His  Majesty 
the  Emperor  Napoleon,  here  present." 

The  Minister  of  State  pronounced  the  marriage 
in  these  words  :  "  In  the  name  of  the  Emperor,  of 
the  Constitution,  and  of  the  Law,  I  declare  that  His 
Majesty  Napoleon  III,  Emperor  of   the  French  by 

59 


The  Imperial   Marriage 

the  grace  of  God  and  the  national  will,  and  Her  Ex- 
cellency Mademoiselle  Eugenie  de  Montijo,  Countess 
of  Teba,  are  united  in  marriage.' ' 

After  the  signing  of  the  register,  the  company  ad- 
journed to  the  theatre  of  the  palace,  where  they 
heard  a  cantata,  written  by  Mery  and  composed  by 
Auber.  At  eleven  Napoleon  retired  to  his  rooms, 
and  the  bride,  with  her  mother,  returned  to  the 
Elysee,  to  rest  in  preparation  for  the  trying  events 
of  the  morrow.  Even  in  that  hour  of  intoxicating 
triumph  the  young  Empress  did  not  forget  the  poor. 
Her  husband  placed  in  her  corbeille  de  manage  a 
pocket-book  containing  250,000  francs.  This  sum 
she  divided  between  the  Maternity  Societies  of  Paris 
and  the  Hospital  for  Incurables. 

For  eight  days,  under  the  direction  of  M.  Viollet- 
le-Duc,  workmen  had  been  toiling  without  pause  to 
prepare  the  Cathedral  for  the  grand  event.  Gal- 
leries for  spectators  were  erected  near  the  chancel, 
as  in  Westminster  Abbey  on  supreme  occasions,  and 
the  rush  for  tickets  taxed  the  utmost  resources  of 
the  officials.  The  high  altar  was  removed  to  the 
entrance  of  the  choir,  and  under  a  vast  canopy  of 
crimson  velvet,  surmounted  by  an  eagle  bearing  a 
crown,  thrones  were  placed  for  the  Imperial  spouses. 
The  pillars  of  choir  and  nave  were  wreathed  with 
green  velvet  draperies,  strewn  with  golden  bees,  and 
ornamented  with  the  royal  arms.  It  was  observed 
that  the  arms  of  the  Montijos  had  twenty-five 
quarterings,  and  that  the  device  was  a  cross,  with 
Constantine's  motto,  In  hoc  signo  vinces.  Flags 
embroidered  with  the  arms  of  the  French  depart- 
ments hung  in  the  nave.     A  choir  of  five  hundred 

60 


In  Notre  Dame 

voices  was  to  be  stationed  in  a  gallery  at  the  west 
end  of  the  church.  Outside,  the  alterations  were 
hardly  less  striking.  In  front  of  the  great  door  a 
porch  had  been  erected,  its  pillars  sustaining  statues 
of  Charlemagne  and  Napoleon  I.  The  towers  were 
surmounted  by  eagles  and  banners. 

January  30th  was  one  of  those  calm  days,  with 
mild  air  and  streaming  sunshine,  which  France  often 
enjoys  even  in  the  depth  of  winter.  Soon  after  day- 
light an  immense  crowd  thronged  the  streets.  Depu- 
tations of  workmen,  and  young  girls  robed  in  white, 
carried  early  congratulations  to  the  Tuileries.  Be- 
fore noon  carriages  were  rolling  to  the  Cathedral 
doors,  bringing  ambassadors,  marshals,  ministers, 
officials  from  every  service.  Soldiers  lined  both 
sides  of  the  river,  keeping  back  the  crowds.  At 
half-past  eleven  royal  coaches  brought  the  bride 
from  the  Elysee. 

Many  writers  have  described  her  dazzling  love- 
liness on  her  wedding  day.  "  No  words,"  says 
M.  d'Herisson,  "  can  adequately  describe  the 
charm,  the  beauty,  the  grace  of  the  new  sove- 
reign. Nothing  that  has  been  written  or  will 
be  written  about  her  can  possibly  be  exaggerated. 
I  was  literally  fascinated."  Imbert  de  Saint-Amand 
writes  :  "  Mingled  with  the  crowd  in  the  court 
of  the  Louvre  I  saw  the  procession  pass.  Seen 
through  the  windows  of  the  glittering  carriage, 
the  Empress  appeared  an  ideal  being.  Her  pallor 
enhanced  the  beauty  of  her  sculpturesque  profile. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  impression  produced  on 
me  by  this  sweet  and  radiant  image.  A  name- 
less   presentiment    told    me    that,    like    all    incom- 

61 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

parably  beautiful  women  .  .  .  she  was  destined  to 
calamities  as  exceptional  as  her  fortune  and  beauty." 

In  the  carriage  with  the  bride  sat  the  Countess  of 
Montijo  and  Count  Charles  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie, 
her  first  chamberlain.  Napoleon  received  her  at 
the  Tuileries.  For  the  journey  to  Notre  Dame  their 
Majesties  used  the  gilded  glass  coach  which  on 
2  December,  1804,  had  carried  Napoleon  and 
Josephine  to  Notre  Dame  for  their  coronation. 
General  Fleury  says  that  the  crown  which  surmounted 
the  carriage  fell  to  the  ground  as  the  procession 
passed  under  the  palace  arch,  and  an  old  servant 
remembered  that  the  same  thing  had  happened  at 
the  wedding  of  Napoleon  and  Marie  Louise. 

"At  the  moment  when  the  carriage  which  conveyed 
their  Majesties  left  the  arch  of  the  Tuileries,"  writes 
Fleury,  "  the  Imperial  crown  which  surmounted 
it  became  detached  and  fell  to  the  ground.  It  was 
necessary  to  replace  it  as  quickly  as  possible  and  to 
suspend  the  march.  This  could  not  be  done  without 
creating  a  certain  sensation.  An  old  servitor  of  the 
First  Empire  pointed  out  that  the  same  thing  had 
occurred  under  precisely  the  same  conditions  at  the 
marriage  of  Napoleon  I  and  Marie  Louise.  It  was 
the  same  carriage,  surmounted  by  the  same  Im- 
perial crown,  and  it  was  the  same  accident.  Na- 
poleon III  inquired  the  reason  of  this  delay.  When 
I  explained  it  to  him,  his  impassive  face  betrayed, 
as  usual,  no  emotion.  But  in  any  other  circum- 
stances, he,  who  knew  the  history  of  the  Empire  as  if 
he  had  been  part  of  it,  would  not  have  failed  to  tell 
me  what  had  happened  at  the  time  of  the  marriage 
of  Napoleon  I." 

62 


The  Great  Ceremony 

The  bride's  dress  was  of  white  velvet,  and  her 
long  lace  veil  was  fastened  with  a  wreath  of  orange 
blossoms.  The  famous  belt  of  diamonds  encircled 
her  slender  waist,  and  on  her  brow  was  the  coro- 
net of  diamonds  worn  by  Marie  Louise  on  her 
wedding  day. 

It  was  almost  one  o'clock  when  the  Archbishop 
of  Paris,  the  ill-fated  Mgr.  Sibour,  began  the  mar- 
riage service.  No  more  magnificent  ceremony  had 
been  seen  within  living  memory.  Overwhelming, 
indeed,  for  the  bride  must  have  been  the  entrance 
into  that  solemn  nave  which  had  witnessed  some  of 
the  most  thrilling  scenes  in  French  history.  Though 
it  is  neither  the  crowning  nor  the  burial-place  of 
monarchs,  their  shadows  haunt  its  mysterious  twi- 
light. 

All  these,  O  King,  from  their  seclusion  dread 

And  guarded  palace  of  eternity, 
Mix  in  thy  pageant  with  phantasmal  tread, 

Hear  the  long  waves  of  acclamation  roll, 
And  with  yet  mightier  silence  marshal  thee 

To  the  awful  throne  thou  hast  inherited. 

Such  thoughts,  we  may  be  sure,  crossed  the  minds 
even  of  the  "  usurpers,"  as  the  congregation  rose 
with  one  consent  to  welcome  them,  and  the  Arch- 
bishop, crucifix  in  hand,  advanced  to  meet  them  on 
the  threshold. 

The  service  was  long  and  fatiguing,  and  the 
Empress  became  so  visibly  agitated  that  Count 
Tascher  de  la  Pagerie,  who  stood  behind  her,  thought 
she  must  faint,  and  heard  the  Emperor  cheering 
her  with  tender  words.  She  rallied  for  the  Te 
Deum  which  followed  the  Mass,  but  it  was  noted 

63 


The  Imperial  Marriage 

that  her  marvellous  beauty  was  paled  that  day  as  if 
with  the  apprehension  of  sorrow. 

At  the  close  of  the  Te  Deum  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  and  the  Cure  of  Saint-Germain  l'Auxerrois, 
the  parish  church  of  the  Tuileries,  presented  the 
register  to  the  married  pair  for  their  signatures. 
The  witnesses  for  the  Emperor  were  his  uncle, 
King  Jerome,  and  his  cousin,  Prince  Napoleon,  and 
for  the  Empress,  the  Marquis  de  Valdegamas, 
Spanish  Ambassador  in  Paris,  the  Due  d'Ossuna, 
and  other  Spanish  noblemen. 

After  the  signing  of  the  register  the  Archbishop 
and  his  clergy  conducted  the  newly  married  pair  to 
the  western  entrance.  Their  reception  was  genuinely 
enthusiastic  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Notre  Dame, 
elsewhere  it  was  cordial.  The  crowd  was  so  ab- 
sorbed in  watching  the  procession,  so  enraptured 
with  the  beauty  of  the  Empress,  that  they  almost 
forgot  to  cheer.  Telegrams  announcing  the  mar- 
riage were  despatched  to  the  principal  towns. 
"  Everywhere  on  her  passage,"  it  was  said,  "  the 
young  and  beautiful  Empress  has  received  from  the 
people,  from  the  National  Guard,  and  from  the 
Army,  the  most  touching  and  enthusiastic  greeting." 

On  returning  to  the  Tuileries,  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  showed  themselves  twice  on  the  balconies. 
Their  brief  honeymoon  was  spent  at  Saint  Cloud. 

Among  the  visitors  to  Paris  for  these  festivities 
there  were  numerous  compatriots  of  the  Empress. 
Prosper  Merimee  remarks  that  among  the  beauties 
of  Spain  the  triumph  of  the  Countess  of  Teba  aroused 
envy  and  desire.  "  Papa,"  said  one  dark-eyed 
Andalusian  maiden,  "  let  them  take  me  to  Paris. 

64 


Pearls  and  Tears 

There  is  no  chance  for  a  girl  in  this  country."  It 
was  a  Spanish  lady  who,  as  she  admired  the  pearl 
necklace  worn  by  the  youthful  sovereign,  quoted 
with  melancholy  foreboding  that  proverb  of  her 
country  :  "  The  pearls  which  women  wear  on  their 
wedding  day  are  a  symbol  of  the  tears  which  they 
will  shed."  ' 


65 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    YOUNG     WIFE 

Eugenie's  bridal  triumph — The  Crimean  War — Queen  Victoria  and 
the  Empress  in  1855 — The  Empress  at  Windsor — Queen 
Victoria's  return  visit  to  Paris — The  cradle  at  the  Tuileries — 
The  christening  at  Notre  Dame — The  Golden  Rose. 

"  /"AH,  I  do  love  her!  "    Napoleon  had  said  to 
V_y  Fleury  on  the  terrace  of  Compiegne,  and  the 
gallant  soldier  replied,  "  Well  then,  you  must  marry 
her,  sir  !  " 

"  I  am  seriously  thinking  about  it,"  was  his 
master's  response.  Fleury' s  advice  had  been  taken  ; 
Eugenie  de  Monti  jo  sat  on  the  throne  of  France. 
Her  magnificent  trousseau,  the  work  of  Madame 
Vignon  and  Mademoiselle  Palmyre,  was  a  nine- 
days'  wonder  for  the  Parisians.  Medals,  sold  by 
thousands  at  a  penny,  bore  on  one  side  the  effigy 
of  the  Emperor,  with  the  inscription,  "  Heureux 
mariage  de  S.M.  Napoleon  III,"  and  on  the  other 
that  of  Eugenie,  with  the  words,  "  Imperatrice  des 
Francais,  30  Janvier,  1853." 

The  verses  addressed  by  Spanish  poets  to  Anda- 
lusia's fairest  daughter  were  translated  into  French, 
and  published  in  a  handsome  volume  as  the  "  Ro- 
mancero  "  of  the  Empress.  We  turn  over  the  pages 
to-day  with  swiftly  changing  thoughts.  Enrique 
de  Cisneros  celebrated  her  feats  as  a  horsewoman. 

66 


Honeymoon 

"  She  controls  the  steed  rather  by  her  beauty  than 
by  the  strength  of  her  arm,  and  you  might  take  her 
in  the  depth  of  the  forest  for  Diana  the  Huntress." 
Other  minstrels  hailed  her  as  the  Pearl  of  Spain,  the 
Nymph  of  the  Xenil,  the  Angel  of  France,  and  the 
Imperial  Star.  Mingled  with  graceful  flatteries 
there  are  ominous,  unexpected  sayings.  "  My  chil- 
dren, the  trembling  flame  has  nearly  gone  out ;  this 
is  the  hour  when  night-birds  leave  their  nests,  when 
we  hear  sad  voices  moaning." 

Strangely  enough,  the  Empress's  first  act  after 
her  marriage  showed  that  her  mind  was  brooding  on 
images  of  death  and  sorrow.  At  the  beginning  of 
her  honeymoon  at  Saint  Cloud,  she  asked  Napoleon 
to  drive  her  to  Versailles,  and  there  she  inspected 
with  mournful  interest  the  rooms  of  Marie  Antoinette 
in  the  Little  Trianon.  On  returning  to  Paris,  the 
Imperial  pair  visited  the  Archives  Nationales,  and 
read  Marie  Antoinette's  last  letter,  written  from 
the  Conciergerie  on  the  morning  of  her  execution. 
Eugenie  in  later  years  made  a  collection  of  relics 
belonging  to  the  hapless  queen. 

Dark  thoughts  could  not,  however,  find,  a  per- 
manent lodgment  in  the  young  bride's  heart.  The 
first  months  after  the  wedding  were  filled  with 
laughter  and  festival.  On  Wednesday,  9  February, 
the  Senate  gave  a  ball  to  their  Majesties  at  the 
Luxembourg.  The  Empress  appeared  in  a  rich 
dress  of  white  satin  ornamented  with  pearls,  wear- 
ing a  wreath  of  violets  in  her  hair.  The  pallor  which 
awakened  sympathy  at  the  Notre  Dame  ceremony 
had  given  place  to  the  bright,  clear  colour  of  perfect 
health.     The  Legislative  Body,  not  to  be  outdone, 

67 


The  Young  Wife 

sent  out  invitations  for  a  ball  at  the  Palais  Bourbon. 
Montalembert  was  one  of  several  members  who 
grudged  the  expenditure.  He  forwarded  his  sub- 
scription to  the  Mayor  of  Besancon,  asking  that  it 
might  be  employed  in  charity.  The  mayor,  an 
official  who  had  understanding  of  the  times,  promptly 
returned  the  money. 

The  Imperial  Court  was  organized  with  un- 
bounded pomp  and  luxury.  As  Francis  I  had 
wished  to  revive  the  customs  of  mediaeval  chivalry, 
the  young  Court  of  the  Empire  sought  to  imitate 
the  old  monarchy.  The  offices  of  Grand  Marshal  of 
the  Palace,  Grand  Chamberlain,  Master  of  the  Horse, 
and  Master  of  the  Hounds,  were  re-established, 
along  with  countless  minor  dignities.  Some  of 
the  gentlemen  round  the  Emperor  drew  salaries 
in  several  different  capacities.  The  nation  was 
willing,  for  the  moment,  to  accept  such  burdens, 
and  watched  indulgently  while  the  rulers  of  yester- 
day sheltered  themselves  behind  the  stiff  etiquette 
of  feudal  centuries.  Napoleon  was  a  martinet  on 
the  petty  points  of  palace  manners.  The  least 
departure  from  the  established  routine  annoyed  him 
more  than  a  serious  error.  A  book  was  published 
early  in  1853  on  How  to  Choose  Liveries,  and  when 
one  influential  personage  powdered  his  coachman, 
all  society  hastened  to  imitate  him.  De  Tocque- 
ville  wrote  to  one  of  his  English  friends  that  the 
courtiers  in  the  forest  of  Fontainebleau  were  wear- 
ing the  hunting-dress  of  Louis  XV's  time,  "  avec 
the  cocket  hate  a  plume." 

A  striking  picture  of  the  young  Empress  is  given 
by  George  Sand  in  her  Impressions  et  Souvenirs  : 

68 


George   Sand   on  the  Empress 

"  That  young  Empress,  let  us  speak  of  her,  for 
already  she  is  playing  a  great  part.  She  arrived 
amongst  us  wearing  Spanish  fashions,  with  a  taste 
for  strong  emotions,  with  a  lingering  regret  for  bull- 
fights, we  won't  say  for  the  auto-da-fe.  Her  piety 
was  never  hidden.  She  knew  the  game  of  the  fan, 
and  was  passionately  fond  of  dress.  Her  hair  was 
powdered  with  gold,  her  figure  was  rounded,  she 
had  all  possible  attractions,  even  that  of  kindliness, 
for  she  is  kind  and  charitable  and  gracious.  She 
is  everything  that  strikes  the  imagination,  the 
senses,  the  heart,  too,  when  need  arises.  All  the 
men  are  in  love  with  her,  and  those  who  cannot 
aspire  to  the  favour  of  the  least  of  her  glances  try 
to  turn  their  wives  into  Empresses  of  the  counting- 
house.  These  good  women  try  to  copy  the  beauti- 
ful Eugenie.  They  pour  gold  or  copper  sand  upon 
their  red  or  false  hair.  They  powder.  They,  too, 
at  this  moment  have  pretty  figures  and  small  feet." 

General  Du  Barail,  who  dined  at  Saint  Cloud  not 
long  after  the  Imperial  marriage,  remarks  that  the 
Empress  was  then  in  all  the  splendour  of  her  dazzling 
beauty,  and  that  the  Emperor  did  not  even  try  to 
hide  in  public  the  passionate  affection  he  felt  for  her. 
u  The  talk  could  not  be  very  interesting.  The 
Emperor  and  Empress  asked  questions  and  the 
others  replied."  Du  Barail  tells  that  a  favourite 
game  of  the  moment  at  Court  was  to  kick  balls 
against  the  candles  and  gaslights  until  all  were  put 
out  !  The  Empress  was  particularly  skilful  in  this 
dangerous  sport. 

As  on  the  eve  of  Waterloo,  the  whisper  of  war 
broke  in  upon  the  dance.     The  red  star  hung  above 

69 


The  Young  Wife 

the  Imperial  pair  almost  from  their  wedding  night. 

At  the  opening  of  Parliament  in  1853,  Napoleon  had 

given  earnest  assurances  of  peace,  but  at  that  very 

moment  the  troubles  which  led  to  the  Crimean  War 

had  broken  out  between  Russia  and  Turkey.     The 

war,  when  it  came,  was  glorious  and  uplifting  for 

the   Empire.     France,   the   protector  of  the   Holy 

Places,  whose  white  flag  had  been  for  centuries  the 

pledge  of  safety  to  the  oppressed  Christians  of  the 

East — 

France,  whose  armour  conscience  buckled  on, 
Whom  zeal  and  charity  brought  to  the  field 
As  God's  own  soldier — * 

was  raised  by  her  gallant  fleets  and  armies  to  the 
first  rank  among  European  Powers.  The  ancient 
motto,  it  seemed,  had  found  a  modern  illustration, 
— "  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos." 

The  story  of  the  Crimean  War  does  not  belong 
to  these  pages,  but  I  may  recall  that  picture  drawn 
by  Henri  Perreyve  of  his  visit  to  the  wounded  at 
Marseilles.  It  was  strange,  he  says,  to  hear  tales 
of  battle  and  glory  in  the  mouths  of  poor  young 
men  who  had  been  lying  for  three  months  or  more 
on  a  bed  of  pain — men  weakened  by  fever,  whose 
wounds  had  festered  during  the  long  and  painful 
voyage,  and  who,  after  all  their  sufferings,  had  no 
prospect  save  of  a  useless  and  impotent  career. 

"  In  these  immense  halls,  full  of  young  men  like 
ourselves,  mutilated  or  dying,  I  remembered  my 
murmurings  against  my  trials,  and  blushed  to  think 
of  them.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  that  really 
holy  look  with  which  some  of  them  said  to  me,  '  I 

*  King  John. 
70 


The  Crimean  War 

did  my  duty,  Monsieur  le  Cure  :  God's  will  be  done.' 
That  word  duty  is  in  almost  every  mouth.  I  was 
greatly  impressed  by  this,  and  it  stirred  in  me  an 
immense  hope  for  France." 

Perreyve  went  to  see  the  soldiers  embarking  at 
the  quays.  He  was  one  who  could  look  below  the 
surface  gaiety  with  which  French  people,  as  he  says, 
often  conceal  serious  and  profoundly  Christian 
thoughts.  One  young  recruit  observed  to  him,  "Am 
I  not  lucky  to  get  this  fine  voyage  for  nothing  ?  " 
"  Five  minutes  later  that  man  said  to  me,  very 
earnestly. '  Each  must  do  his  duty,  Monsieur  l'Abbe.' 
Everywhere  I  heard  that  stern  and  sacred  word." 

The  best  Frenchmen  recognized  the  unselfish  and 
chivalrous  aspect  of  the  Crimean  War.  Writing 
to  Madame  Swetchine  on  9  February,  1854,  La- 
cordaire  says  :  "  France  and  England  have  thrown 
down  the  gauntlet  at  last,  in  the  name  of  civilization, 
liberty,  and  religion,  to  that  power  which  for  half 
a  century  has  been  weighing  upon  the  world  like 
a  menace  of  barbarism,  schism,  and  servitude.  .  .  . 
What  a  marvel  it  is  to  see  a  dictator  forced  to 
join  with  England  in  defending  the  free  civilization 
of  the  West  against  the  autocracy." 

Napoleon  III  at  the  beginning  of  1855  was  eager 
to  set  out  for  the  war.  It  was  proposed  that  the 
Empress  should  accompany  him  as  far  as  Con- 
stantinople, or  possibly  to  the  Crimea.  In  a  letter 
of  26  February  he  revealed  his  plan  to  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  offering  to  double  his  army  if  England  would 
provide  the  transports.  The  Emperor's  presence 
at  the  seat  of  war  was  for  many  reasons  undesired 
by  English  statesmen.     Lord  Clarendon  met  Na- 

71 


The  Young  Wife 

poleon  at  Boulogne,  and  did  his  utmost  to  shake 
his  resolution.  Opinion  in  Paris  and  in  the  French 
camp  was  alike  opposed  to  the  project.  The  Em- 
peror's decision  still  hung  in  the  balance  when,  on 

15  April,  1855,  he  left  Saint  Cloud  with  his  young 
wife,  on  a  visit  to  Queen  Victoria  at  Windsor. 

Flattering  accounts  of  the  Empress  must  have 
reached  the  Queen  from  her  statesmen.  Lord 
Malmesbury,  describing  a  dinner  in  November, 
1853,  says:  "The  Empress  looked  handsomer  than 
ever,  and  her  manner  of  receiving  her  guests  and 
visitors  was  perfection.  She  spoke  to  me  a  great 
deal  about  the  Pope  at  Rome,  and  the  state  of  Ro- 
man Catholics  there  and  in  Ireland.  On  the  question 
of  the  excesses  of  the  English  press  and  its,  to  her, 
apparent  indifference  to  assassination,  I  found  it 
hopeless  to  explain  this  abuse  of  our  liberty,  although 
I  did  not  tell  her  the  publications  in  Switzerland 
against  the  Emperor  are  far  worse  than  anything 
that  could  be  written  or  tolerated  in  England,  being 
full  of  lies  and  obscenity  with  regard  to  him." 

Lord  Palmerston,  who  dined  at  St.  Cloud  in  1854, 
wrote  :  "  The  dinner  was  very  handsome,  and  our 
hosts  very  agreeable.  The  Empress  was  full  of  life, 
animation,  and  talk,  and  the  more  one  looks  at  her, 
the  prettier  one  thinks  her." 

There  was  curiosity  on  both  sides,  we  may  be 
sure,  when  Napoleon's  wife  accepted  the  invitation 
of  Queen  Victoria.  The  Emperor  had  frankly  de- 
scribed himself  as  a  parvenu  monarch,  and  Eugenie, 
though  no  parvenu,  was  not  of  royal  blood. 

A  dense  fog  hung  over  the  Channel  on  Monday, 

16  April,  as  their  Majesties  drew  near  our  shores 

72 


The  Visit  to  England 

on  board  the  steam-yacht  Pdican.  Prince  Albert 
had  come  to  Dover  overnight,  and  was  out  by  9  a.m., 
receiving  an  address  from  the  Mayor  and  Corporation. 
Long,  ornate,  and  dignified  are  the  newspaper  descrip- 
tions of  the  scenes  at  Dover>  At  the  landing-stage 
"  Prince  Albert  might  be  seen,  handing  the  Empress 
on  shore,  with  the  combined  dignity  and  grace  of 
which  His  Royal  Highness  is  so  conspicuous  a 
master."  "  Her  Majesty  was  most  simply  attired 
in  a  chape au  de  paille,  a  grey  paletot,  and — rejoice, 
Caledonia! — a  tartan  dress  of  a  quiet  and  unobtrusive 
pattern."  Captain  Smithett,  who  piloted  the  French 
yachts  through  the  fog,  is  described  as  "  the  veteran 
Palinurus  of  the  Channel." 

The  Imperial  guests  proceeded  at  once  to  their 
hotel,  a  crowd,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Thackeray, 
gazing  at  them  wistfully  through  the  glass  doors. 
After  luncheon  the  Corporation's  address  was  pre- 
sented, "  the  Empress  having  exchanged  her  grey 
jacket  for  a  magnificent  visite  of  black  lace." 

The  reception  in  London  was  most  enthusiastic. 
"  Never  within  the  recollection  of  man,"  said  the 
Daily  News,  "  has  so  remarkable  a  procession  been 
witnessed  in  the  capital  of  England.  The  whole 
population  of  London  lined  the  streets  and  parks. 
It  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  whole  English 
nation,  from  the  Duke  to  the  cabman,  turning  out 
as  for  a  holiday,  determined  to  honour  the  guest  of 
their  Queen  and  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  great 
nation  with  which  we  are  allied."  The  route  to 
Paddington  Station  was  a  continuous  blaze  of  colour, 
and  the  well-known  strains  of  "  Partant  pour  la 
Syrie  "  were  heard  on  every  hand. 

73 


The  Young  Wife 

One  important  personage  was  nearly  left  behind 
in  the  fog.  The  Pttrel,  which  carried  the  gentlemen 
of  their  Majesties'  suite,  reached  Dover  half  an  hour 
later  than  the  Pdican.  As  Colonel  Fleury  with  his 
companions  was  entering  his  carriage  at  Charing 
Cross,  he  felt  his  arm  pulled  and  heard  the  pleading 
words,  "  Please,  Colonel,  let  me  get  up  with  the 
valets  behind  this  carriage,  else  I  shall  never  be  able 
to  join  them,  and  shall  arrive  too  late  for  the  Em- 
press's toilette.  Think  of  my  hard  fate,  Colonel ! 
If  I  can  only  reach  Windsor  when  you  do,  I  can  at 
least  say  I  did  my  best."  The  speaker  was  Felix, 
the  coiffeur  of  the  Empress,  who  had  crossed  by  the 
Petrel,  and  whom  Fleury  at  the  moment  could  hardly 
recognize,  so  overwhelmed  was  he  by  the  sense  of  his 
responsibility,  while  sea-sickness  had  given  a  greenish 
tint  to  his  complexion.  Felix  was  allowed  to  travel 
with  the  equerries,  and  on  reaching  Windsor  the 
good-natured  Colonel  of  the  Guides  hastened  to 
make  his  excuses  to  the  Empress.  "  I  hope,"  re- 
plied Her  Majesty,  with  composure,  "  that  Felix  will 
not  kill  himself  in  despair  :  my  women  have  done 
my  hair  very  well." 

Queen  Victoria's  Journal  supplies  details  of  the 
arrival  at  Windsor.  "  I  advanced  and  embraced 
the  Emperor,  who  received  two  salutes  on  either 
cheek  from  me,  having  first  kissed  my  hand.  I  next 
embraced  the  very  gentle,  graceful,  and  evidently 
very  nervous  Empress.  We  presented  the  Princes 
and  our  children  (Vicky  with  very  alarmed  eyes 
making  very  low  curtsies).  The  Emperor  embraced 
Bertie  and  then  we  went  upstairs,  Albert  leading 
the   Empress,  who  in  the  most  engaging  manner 

74 


Queen  and  Empress 

refused  to  go  first,  but  at  length,  with  graceful  re- 
luctance, did  so,  the  Emperor  leading  me,  expressing 
his  great  gratification  at  being  here  and  seeing  me, 
and  admiring  Windsor." 

Queen  Victoria  observes  that  the  Empress  was 
as  eager  as  her  husband  that  he  should  go  to  the 
Crimea,  seeing  no  greater  danger  for  him  there  than 
in  Paris.  "  She  said  she  was  seldom  alarmed  for 
him,  except  when  he  went  out  quite  alone  of  a 
morning.  .  .  .  She  is  full  of  courage  and  spirit,  and 
yet  so  gentle,  with  such  innocence  and  enjouement 
that  the  ensemble  is  most  charming.  With  all  her 
great  liveliness,  she  has  the  prettiest  and  most 
modest  manners."  "  Her  manner,"  the  Queen 
wrote  later  in  the  visit,  "  is  the  most  perfect  thing 
I  have  ever  seen — so  gentle  and  graceful  and  kind, 
and  the  courtesy  so  charming  and  so  modest  and 
retiring  withal." 

The  suite  set  apart  for  the  Emperor  and  his  wife 
at  Windsor  was  that  which  contained  the  Rubens, 
Zuccarelli,  and  Vandyke  pictures.  The  Emperor's 
bedroom  had  been  occupied  by  the  Czar  Nicholas  I 
and  by  Louis  Philippe. 

On  Tuesday,  17  April,  the  Imperial  guests  ac- 
companied the  Queen  to  a  review  in  Windsor  Park. 
The  hero  of  the  day  was  Lord  Cardigan,  who  led  the 
Light  Brigade  at  Balaclava. 

On  Wednesday,  the  18th,  Napoleon  was  made 
a  Knight  of  the  Garter.  The  ladies  spent  the  morn- 
ing alone,  for  a  Council  was  sitting  in  the  Castle. 
As  the  luncheon  hour  drew  near,  the  Queen  became 
anxious.  The  Chapter  of  the  Order  was  to  meet  at 
four,  and  special  preparations  of  dress  must  be  made. 

75 


The  Young  Wife 

The  Empress  advised  Her  Majesty  to  go  into  the 
Council  Room.  "  I  dare  not  enter/'  she  said,  "  but 
your  Majesty  may  do  so."  The  Queen  knocked 
at  the  door,  entered,  and  asked  what  should  be  done. 
The  Emperor  and  the  Prince  Consort  rose  and  said 
they  were  coming,  but  as  they  still  continued  in 
conference,  the  ladies  lunched  alone. 

These  days  at  Windsor  laid  the  foundation  of  that 
friendship  between  our  late  gracious  Sovereign  and 
the  Empress  Eugenie  which  survived  all  vicissitudes 
and  ended  only  with  Queen  Victoria's  life. 

Greville  observed  that  the  Queen  omitted  none  of 
the  usual  forms  practised  between  royal  personages, 
and  that  "  none  of  the  sovereigns  who  have  been 
here  before  were  received  with  such  magnificence  by 
the  Court,  or  with  such  curiosity  and  delight  by  the 
people." 

A  few  Frenchmen  were  silly  enough  to  misunder- 
stand the  popular  welcome,  as  may  be  gathered  from 
the  remark  of  Viel  Castel  in  his  journal :  "  The  Em- 
peror has  been  received  in  London  as  the  protector 
of  old  England." 

Thursday,  19  April,  was  the  date  of  the  Guildhall 
banquet.  All  along  the  route  vast  crowds  greeted 
our  Imperial  ally.  It  was  remarked  that  as  Na- 
poleon's carriage  passed  along  King  Street,  St. 
James's,  he  pointed  out  to  the  Empress  the  house 
in  which  he  had  formerly  lived  as  an  exile.  On 
passing  the  Horse  Guards  he  stood  up  and  saluted 
the  colours. 

The  Empress  wore  on  this  occasion  a  green  dress 
adorned  with  lace,  and  a  white  bonnet,  light  and 
delicate  as  a  snowflake.     The  people,  like  the  Queen, 

76 


The  Guildhall    Banquet 

were,  in  Greville's  phrase,  "  exceedingly  pleased 
with  both  of  them."  A  tempest  of  cheers  followed 
Napoleon's  remark  at  the  banquet,  "  For  myself, 
I  have  retained  on  the  throne  the  same  sentiments 
of  sympathy  and  esteem  for  the  English  people  that 

I  professed  as  an  exile,  while  I  enjoyed  here  the 
hospitality  of  your  country." 

Popular  feeling  towards  the  Empress  was  happily 
expressed  in  Punch  : — 

Nor  small  share  in  this  welcome  is  hers  who  sits  by  thee, 
Like  a  pale  blush  rose  planted  by  a  dark,  rock-rooted  tree. 
The  people's  voice  approves  the  choice,  made  not  for  royal  grace, 
But  better,  for  a  gentle  heart,  and  for  a  sweet,  sweet  face. 

The  crowd's  untutored  chivalry  goes  with  the  bonny  bride, 
Whose  beauty  wears  the  trace  of  cares — what  wonder,  by  thy 

side  ? — 
Goes  with  her  love,  her  hopes,  her  fears — prays  that  her  fate  may 

prove 
More  kind  than  hapless  Josephine's,  unblessed  by  pledge  of  love. 

A  State  ball,  a  gala  performance  at  the  Opera, 
and  a  visit  to  the  Crystal  Palace,  filled  up  the  hours 
of  this  very  busy  week,  and  on  Saturday  Napoleon 
and  Eugenie  left  Buckingham  Palace,  on  their  return 
journey.  The  farewell  scene  proved  that  the  young 
Empress  had  gained  the  affection  of  the  Queen's 
children.     "  The  Princess   Victoria,"    says   Fleury, 

II  threw  herself  sobbing  into  the  arms  of  her  friend." 
Prince  Arthur,  the  Queen's  youngest  son,  was  a 
special  favourite  with  the  Emperor,  having  won  his 
heart  by  presenting  two  violets  on  his  birthday.  A 
year  later,  when  thanking  the  Queen  and  Prince 
Albert  for  congratulations  on  the  birth  of  his  son, 
Napoleon  hoped  his  Louis  might  resemble   "  dear 

77 


The  Young  Wife 

little  Prince  Arthur,"  and  might  have  "the  rare 
qualities  of  your  children." 

The  most  interesting  description  of  the  Imperial 
visit  to  London  is  that  of  Countess  Bernstorff .  She 
says :  "  The  English  people  assured  him  [Napoleon] 
of  an  enthusiastic  welcome  ;  the  upper  ten  were  less 
enchanted  with  the  visit.  They  pitied  the  Queen 
openly  because  she  was  obliged  to  play  the  hostess 
to  this  parvenu  pair."  It  was  even  said  that  the 
whole  business  was  a  humiliation  for  the  Queen. 
Great  anxiety,  according  to  the  Countess,  was  felt 
lest  some  attack  should  be  made  on  Napoleon  during 
his  English  visit,  and  the  police  redoubled  their  pre- 
cautions. 

Countess  Bernstorff  and  her  husband  attended 
the  reception  of  the  diplomatic  corps  at  the  French 
Embassy.  "  The  Emperor  and  Empress  stood  with 
their  backs  to  the  window,  with  their  military  suite 
behind  them.  By  the  Emperor's  side  was  Count 
Walewski,  next  to  the  Empress  Countess  Walew- 
ska,  and  beyond  her  the  Empress's  ladies-in-waiting. 
.  .  .  While  my  husband  was  conversing  with  the 
Emperor,  I  had  a  fairly  long  chat  with  the  Empress. 
She  pleased  me  by  her  simplicity,  her  ease  in  talk, 
and  her  charming  manners.  She  expressed  a  wish 
to  see  me  and  my  husband  in  Paris  during  the  Ex- 
hibition. After  that  she  talked  about  the  journey, 
and  the  kind  reception  in  London.  She  regretted 
that  I  had  been  indisposed,  and  hoped  that  my 
coming  out  to-day  would  not  hurt  me.  Napoleon 
then  talked  to  me  about  Paris,  my  long  residence 
there,  my  father,  etc.  .  .  .  Our  conversation  was 
brought  to  an  end  by  the  arrival  of  the  Danish  re- 

78 


Countess  Bernstorff's  Narrative 

preservative."  The  Countess  tells  that  Mr.  Buchanan, 
the  American  Ambassador,  made  a  rather  awkward 
reply  when  the  Emperor  spoke  of  the  kindly  re- 
ception given  to  him  in  New  York  during  his  exile. 
"  Oh,"  said  Mr.  Buchanan,  "  I  hope  your  Majesty 
will  never  return  there  again  !  "  "  Why  not  ?  " 
replied  the  Emperor  coolly.  "  Travelling  has  be- 
come so  easy  nowadays  that  I  might  visit  America 
as  easily  as  London." 

The  quick-eyed  Countess  observed  that  Walewski's 
manner  to  his  Sovereign  was  neither  very  submissive 
nor  very  respectful.  She  further  reports,  on  good 
authority,  that  Queen  Victoria  had  been  greatly 
excited  in  anticipation  of  the  visit,  and  walked  up 
and  down  the  room  on  the  arrival  day,  repeating, 
" How  nervous  I  am ! "  ....  "The  Empress  Eugenie's 
behaviour  was  modest  and  almost  shy.  She  seemed 
deeply  touched  by  the  cordiality  of  her  reception. 
During  the  visit  she  always  kept  behind  the  Queen, 
who  on  several  occasions  politely  offered  to  yield 
precedence  to  her,  but  in  the  end  always  herself  went 
first."  Both  the  Imperial  guests  paid  great  attention 
to  the  Queen's  children. 

Eugenie's  manner  to  the  Queen  was  full  of  graceful 
deference.  "  People  were  rather  surprised,"  writes 
the  Countess  Bernstorff,  "  that  Queen  Victoria  on 
all  public  occasions  went  in  front  with  the  Emperor, 
and  allowed  the  Empress  to  bring  up  the  rear  with 
Prince  Albert.  I  myself,  I  must  confess,  thought 
this  conduct  absolutely  correct,  but  many  thought 
it  would  have  been  more  becoming  not  to  leave  the 
Empress  so  completely  in  the  shade."  In  the  opinion 
of  this  German  critic,  "  the  Empress  can  scarcely 

79 


The  Young  Wife 

be  called  a  beautiful  woman  ;  she  is  pretty,  elegant, 
and  very  ladylike — neither  more  nor  less  than  that. 
This  was  the  impression  that  she  made  on  every  one. 
The  Duchess  of  Cambridge  said  to  me,  "  She  is  no 
Empress  and  no  Princess,  but  a  lovable  woman, 
comme  il  fani"  To  the  Hanoverian  representative 
Queen  Victoria  said,  "  N'est  elle  pas  delicieuse  ?  " 

In  the  Council  held  at  Windsor  the  English  states- 
men present  had  strongly  opposed  the  project  of 
the  Emperor's  journey  to  the  Crimea,  and  the  idea 
was  tacitly  abandoned  after  the  attempt  on  his  life 
by  Pionori  (28  April,  1855).  He  had  left  the  Tuil- 
eries  on  horseback  about  five  in  the  afternoon,  in- 
tending to  join  the  Empress,  who  was  driving  in 
the  Bois  de  Boulogne.  In  the  Champs-Elysees  a 
man  rushed  out  from  a  side-alley  and  fired  two  shots 
in  rapid  succession.  Fortunately  he  missed  his  aim. 
The  Emperor,  who  showed  perfect  coolness,  spoke 
a  few  reassuring  words  to  the  people  who  crowded 
round  him,  and  quietly  continued  his  ride.  The 
would-be  assassin  was  taken  afterwards  and  executed. 
Amid  scenes  of  overwhelming  enthusiasm  the  Em- 
peror and  Empress  drove  back  an  hour  later  to  the 
palace.  It  was  noticed  that  the  Empress  looked 
pale  and  held  her  handkerchief  to  her  eyes.  At  the 
Tuileries  princes  and  ministers  were  waiting  to 
congratulate  the  Sovereign.  "  You  see,  gentlemen," 
he  remarked,  "  that  it  is  not  so  easy  to  kill  me."  In 
reply  to  congratulations  from  the  Senate  he  said, 
with  serene  dignity,  "  I  shall  not  fear  the  assassin's 
hand  till  my  work  is  done." 

The  Industrial  Exhibition  of  1855  drew  countless 
guests  to   Paris.      Among    them    were  the  Queen 

80 


jT 


#j# 


THE     EMPRESS     EUGENIE     AS     A     YOUNG     WIFE. 

Aft 

Collection  :     August  in    ' 


Queen  Victoria  in  Paris 

and  Prince  Albert,  with  Princess  Victoria  and  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  Strange  as  was  the  caprice  of 
fortune  by  which  the  nephew  of  our  greatest  enemy 
became  the  idolized  guest  of  the  British  people,  the 
presence  of  Queen  Victoria  as  a  guest  at  Saint  Cloud 
was  an  even  more  significant  event  in  the  eyes  of 
Europe.  It  set  the  seal  on  the  Anglo-French 
alliance,  and  it  admitted  Napoleon  III  to  the  comity 
of  sovereigns.  Such  an  honour  was  as  precious  as 
a  victory,  serving  on  the  one  hand  to  enhance  his 
prestige  with  his  own  people,  and  on  the  other  to 
strengthen  French  influence  abroad.  By  their  jubi- 
lant acclamations  on  every  occasion  when  the  Queen 
appeared  in  public,  the  Parisians  showed  their  ap- 
preciation of  her  presence  amongst  them.  Her 
Majesty  appears  to  have  felt  genuine  pleasure  in 
meeting  once  more  "  that  extraordinary  man," 
whom  she  found  it  impossible  not  to  like,  and  even 
to  admire. 

On  Saturday,  18  August,  the  English  royal  party 
left  Osborne  for  Boulogne  on  the  Victoria  and  Albert, 
and  were  received  by  their  host  at  the  landing-stage. 
Late  that  evening,  after  a  brilliant  reception  in 
Paris,  they  arrived  at  Saint  Cloud,  where  the  Empress 
awaited  them.  She  was  at  that  time  in  delicate 
health,  and  took  little  part  in  the  innumerable  ex- 
cursions arranged  for  the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert. 
11  The  Empress,"  wrote  the  Prince  Consort,  "is  in 
expectation  of  an  heir,  and  suffering."  The  State 
ball  at  Versailles  was  for  her  the  chief  excitement  of 
the  week.  "  The  Empress  met  us  at  the  top  of  the 
staircase,  looking  like  a  fairy  queen  or  nymph  in  a 
white  dress,  trimmed  with  bunches  of  grass  and 

G  Si 


The  Young  Wife 

diamonds — a  beautiful  tour  de  corsage  of  diamonds 
round  the  top  of  her  dress,  and  all  en  riviere,  the  same 
round  her  waist  and  a  corresponding  coiffure,  with 
her  Spanish  and  Portuguese  orders.  The  Emperor 
said,  when  she  appeared,  '  Comme  tu  es  belle  I '  " 

Queen  Victoria,  whose  words  I  have  quoted, 
found  time  for  intimate  and  womanly  talks  with  her 
hostess  in  the  private  apartments  at  Saint  Cloud. 
Countess  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie  says  that  the  Em- 
press eclipsed  her  royal  guest  by  her  dazzling  beauty 
and  her  supreme  elegance,  but  the  Queen  of  England 
was  always  the  Queen !  No  thoughts  of  petty 
jealousy  disturbed  Queen  Victoria's  heart.  "  I  am 
delighted  to  see  how  much  Albert  likes  and  admires 
her,"  she  had  written  at  Windsor,  "  as  it  is  so  seldom 
I  see  him  do  so  with  any  woman."  On  leaving  Saint 
Cloud  Her  Majesty  wrote,  "  I  am  deeply  grateful  for 
these  eight  very  happy  days."  The  Empress  gave 
the  Queen  a  beautiful  fan,  with  a  rose  and  helio- 
trope from  the  garden,  while  she  clasped  on  the  arm 
of  Princess  Victoria  a  bracelet  set  with  rubies  and 
diamonds,  in  which  her  own  hair  was  enclosed. 

In  October,  1855,  an  announcement  in  the  Moni- 
teur  confirmed  the  universal  hope  that  the  new  year 
might  bring,  not  only  the  earnestly  desired  blessing 
of  peace,  but  a  child  to  the  Emperor's  home.  The 
Countess  of  Montijo  came  from  Spain  to  be  with 
her  daughter.  The  position  of  that  clever  lady 
had  not  been  altogether  easy  since  the  marriage. 
The  Empress  had  secured  for  her  a  costly  home  in 
the  Champs-Elysees,  but  Napoleon  was  not  always 
on  good  terms  with  his  mother-in-law,  and  in  1854 
she  had  returned  to  Madrid. 

82 


Birth  of  the  Prince  Imperial 

On  Sunday  morning,  16  March,  1856,  the  guns  of 
the  Invalides  announced  the  birth  of  a  prince.  It 
had  been  known  on  Saturday  evening  that  the 
Empress  was  dangerously  ill,  and  that  the  Emperor 
was  in  an  agony  of  apprehension.  Lord  Malmes- 
bury  reports  that  "  for  fifteen  hours  the  Emperor 
sobbed  and  cried  without  ceasing,"  and  was  so  over- 
come by  the  reaction  of  gladness  after  the  joyful 
event  that  he  rushed  into  the  next  room  and  em- 
braced the  first  five  persons  he  met. 

During  the  whole  of  Saturday  groups  lingered 
on  the  Place  de  Carrousel  and  in  the  Tuileries  gar- 
dens. At  the  Invalides,  artillerymen  stood  at  their 
guns  all  day  with  matches  lighted,  expecting  every 
moment  the  signal  flame  from  the  palace. 

When  the  guns  were  heard  at  6  a.m.  on  Palm 
Sunday,  the  people  of  Paris  counted  anxiously. 
There  would  be  twenty-one  volleys  for  a  girl,  a 
hundred  and  one  for  a  boy.  When  the  certainty 
that  an  heir  had  been  born  to  the  throne  took 
possession  of  the  populace,  there  was  an  outburst 
of  spontaneous  and  universal  gladness,  not  only 
among  the  Bonapartists,  but  among  all  friends  of 
public  order.  "A  Prince  Imperial,"  says  M.  de  la 
Gorce,  "  meant  that  the  continuity  of  the  Empire 
was  assured.  It  meant  also  the  setting  aside  of 
Prince  Napoleon,  and  in  the  opinion  of  many,  the 
second  advantage  was  at  least  equal  to  the  first." 

The  Court  preacher,  the  Abbe  Deplace,  chose  the 
Palm  Sunday  text  from  the  118th  Psalm,  "  Blessed 
is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  and  it 
was  felt  that  the  old  words  had  a  new  and  tender 
meaning.     In  closing  his  sermon  the  Abbe  offered 

83 


The  Young  Wife 

prayer  for  the  child  that  had  been  born  to  France : 
"  It  is  Thou,  O  Lord,  who  hast  blessed  in  an  heir  to 
the  throne  the  faith  of  the  Prince  who  proclaims 
before  all  the  world  his  mission,  and  the  charity  of 
the  pious  Princess  who  honours  herself  in  being  the 
protectress  of  the  unfortunate  and  the  mother  of 
Thy  poor.  Complete  Thy  mercies,  O  Lord.  Watch 
over  his  cradle,  with  which  so  many  hopes  are  bound 
up.  Form  him  Thyself  to  be  the  happiness  of  a 
great  people.  Give  him  from  his  father  genius  and 
magnanimity,  from  his  mother  kindness  and  in- 
exhaustible benevolence,  and  from  both  sincere 
faith  and  devoted  religion.  To  sum  up  all,  give  him 
a  heart  worthy  of  his  destiny   and  worthy  of  his 


name." 


The  ondoiement,  or  private  baptism  of  the  Prince, 
took  place  that  Sunday  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Tuil- 
eries.  He  was  carried  by  Madame  Bruat,  governess 
of  the  children  of  France,  widow  of  the  gallant  Ad- 
miral Bruat  who  died  on  the  Montebello  in  1855,  on 
his  return  from  France  to  the  Crimea.  She  was  a 
charming  woman,  with  gentle,  Madonna-like  coun- 
tenance, and  was  compared  to  the  Angel  of  the 
Fatherland  bending  over  the  cradle  of  the  princely 
child.  The  under-governesses  were  Madame  Bizot 
and  Madame  de  Brancion,  and  their  duties  were 
shared  by  an  English  lady,  Miss  Shaw,  to  whom  the 
little  Prince  became  fondly  attached.  A  beautiful 
Burgundian  peasant  was  chosen  as  his  nurse.  In 
her  red  skirt,  black  velvet  bodice,  and  small  cap  of 
lace,  she  was  one  of  the  most  picturesque  figures  in 
the  palace.  Almost  every  hour,  during  these  early 
days,  the  Emperor  came  to  look  at  his  heir,  as 

84 


The  Private  Baptism 

he  slumbered  in  the  regal  cradle,  covered  with  lace 
and  ribbons.  For  the  ceremony  of  the  ondoiement 
the  infant  was  wrapped  in  a  magnificent  blue  cloak, 
bordered  with  gold.  The  names  given  him  were 
Napoleon  Eugene  Louis  Jean  Joseph. 

The  Pope  was  his  godfather,  and  the  Queen  of 
Sweden  his  godmother.  "  I  have  never  forgotten 
the  face  of  that  poor  little  Prince,"  says  General 
Fleury,  "  when  we  went  to  take  him  from  the  cradle, 
in  which  he  lay  half  hidden  under  the  grand  cordon 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour.  He  was  calm,  and  seemed 
to  understand,  without  any  surprise,  the  honours 
that  were  paid  to  him."  The  baby,  Fleury  adds, 
had  unusually  well-marked  features. 

Among  the  many  poems  addressed  to  the  Imperial 
child  the  most  beautiful  was  that  of  Theophile 
Gautier,  who  compared  him  to  the  Holy  Infant, 

Qui  porte  en  sa  petite  main 

Pour  globe  bleu,  la  paix  du  monde 

Et  le  bonheur  du  genre  humain. 

The  poet  foreshadowed  a  bright  future  for  the  son 
of  France,  if  he  followed  his  father's  glorious  star  : 

Suis  bien  le  sillon  qu'il  te  marque 

Et  vogue,  fort  du  souvenir, 
Dans  ton  berceau  devenu  barque 

Sur  l'oc6an  de  l'Avenir. 

The  tender  lines  of  Camille  Doucet  may  also  be 

quoted  : 

Dors,  enfant,  et  que  Dieu  t'inspire, 

Dormez  aussi,  mere,  sans  peur  ; 
La  France,  qui  pour  vous  conspire 
Vous  donnait  naguere  un  empire ; 
Vous  lui  donnez  un  empereur. 

85 


The  Young  Wife 

On  Tuesday,  18  March,  the  Emperor  received  the 
congratulations  of  the  Senate,  the  Legislative  Body, 
and  the  Council  of  State.  "  France  breathes  more 
freely,"  said  the  President  of  the  Senate,  "by  the 
birth  of  this  child.  She  associates  her  future  with 
his  destinies.  When  he  shall  reign  over  this  Empire, 
which  Grotius  called  the  finest  under  heaven,  the 
nineteenth  century  having  reached  its  extreme 
period  will  gather  the  fruits,  the  productive  seed 
of  which  has  been  sown  by  our  generation  in  the 
present." 

The  note  of  affection  and  loyalty  breathed  through 
the  congratulatory  addresses,  but  the  Emperor's 
replies  were  deeply  marked  by  the  lessons  of  a  gloomy 
experience.  "  History,"  he  said,  "  has  teachings 
which  I  shall  not  forget.  It  tells  me  that  the  favours 
of  fortune  should  never  be  abused,  that  a  dynasty 
has  a  chance  of  stability  only  while  it  remains  faithful 
to  its  origin  and  has  a  care  for  the  popular  interests 
for  which  it  has  been  created.  This  child,  conse- 
crated in  his  cradle  by  the  peace  we  are  preparing, 
by  the  blessing  of  the  Pope,  carried  to  him  by  elec- 
tricity an  hour  after  his  birth,  and  by  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  French  people  whom  the  Emperor  loved 
so  well, — this  child,  I  say,  will  be  worthy  of  the  destiny 
which  awaits  him." 

In  the  overflowing  delight  of  the  hour  the  Em- 
peror had  even  thrown  himself  into  the  arms  of  his 
disappointed  and  angry  cousin,  Prince  Napoleon, 
entreating  him  to  love  and  protect  the  child.  King 
Jerome's  son  hardly  troubled  to  conceal  his  annoy- 
ance. Perhaps  he  consoled  himself  with  the  re- 
flection with  which   the   Times   tempered   the   re- 

86 


The  Baptism  at  Notre  Dame 

joicings  in  England  over  the  birth  of  an  heir  to  our 
Imperial  ally  :  "  From  the  accession  of  Louis  XIV 
to  the  present  time  not  a  single  King  or  Governor  of 
France,  though  none  of  them,  with  the  exception  of 
Louis  XVIII,  has  been  childless,  has  been  succeeded 
at  his  demise  by  his  son." 

The  arrival  of  innumerable  presents  for  mother 
and  son  testified  to  the  joy  of  the  people.  Some, 
like  the  huge  cask  of  honey,  the  carriage  of  which 
cost  twenty  francs,  were  more  embarrassing  than 
welcome.  The  Emperor  announced  that  he  would 
be  godfather  and  the  Empress  godmother  to  all 
French  children  born  in  wedlock  on  16  March,  1856. 
Each  was  to  receive  three  thousand  francs,  the  boys 
to  be  called  Louis  Eugene  and  the  girls  Eugenie- 
Louise.  It  was  estimated  that  about  two  thousand 
five  hundred  children  received  the  honour.  This 
graceful  act  was  extremely  popular  with  the  masses, 
and  not  less  so  was  the  foundation  of  a  home  for 
orphan  boys,  to  be  called  "  L'Orphelinat  du  Prince 
Imperial,"  in  commemoration  of  the  birth  of  an  heir 
to  the  crown. 

The  Empress  made  a  slow  and  difficult  recovery, 
and  it  was  not  till  Saturday,  14  June,  that  she  was 
well  enough  to  drive  to  Notre  Dame  for  the  baptism 
of  her  son.  Cardinal  Patrizi,  the  representative  of 
Pius  IX,  arrived  in  Paris  for  the  ceremony,  and  was 
received  with  dstiinguished  honours.  The  Prince, 
carried  in  the  arms  of  Madame  Bruat,  was  robed  in 
a  red  mantle  lined  with  ermine.  The  scene  in  the 
Cathedral  was  almost  as  splendid  as  at  the  Imperial 
wedding,  the  ancient  building  being  again  trans- 
formed with  rich  banners  and  tapestries,  while  the 

87 


The  Young  Wife 

rank  and  fashion  of  the  capital  assembled  in  galleries 
erected  on  either  side  of  the  choir. 

When  the  ceremony  was  complete,  Madame  Bruat 
placed  the  Prince  in  the  arms  of  the  Empress,  who 
was  to  hold  him  up  to  the  people.  Seeing  that 
through  weakness  and  agitation  the  young  mother 
was  scarcely  equal  to  the  task,  the  Emperor  took 
the  boy  and  held  him  proudly  before  his  subjects, 
while  a  chamberlain,  advancing  to  the  entrance  of 
the  choir,  cried  three  times,  "  Vive  le  Prince  Im- 
perial! "  In  the  evening  the  City  of  Paris  gave  a 
banquet  to  their  Majesties  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and 
the  festivities  culminated  in  a  magnificent  ball  at 
the  same  place  on  Monday  the  16th.  The  Empress 
opened  the  ball  with  Baron  Haussmann,  then  Pre- 
fect of  the  Seine. 

From  earliest  days  the  Prince  was  called  by  the 
pet  name  of  Loulou.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the 
enemies  of  Eugenie  have  reproached  her  with  a  lack 
of  tenderness  to  her  only  child.  General  de  Ricard, 
formerly  an  aide-de-camp  to  King  Jerome,  says  in 
his  curious  memoirs,  Autour  des  Bonaparte  :  "It 
was  no  secret  at  the  time,  and  is  no  secret  now,  that 
the  Empress  did  not  show  herself  a  very  tender 
mother.  People  said  that  she  did  not  seem  to  love 
her  son."  The  charge  of  unmotherliness  is  refuted 
by  every  action  of  the  Empress's  life. 

A  treasure  which  she  valued  highly  and  kept 
until  1870  in  her  bedroom  at  the  Tuileries,  was 
the  golden  rose  presented  to  her  by  the  Pope 
on  the  occasion  of  the  Prince's  baptism.  Cardinal 
Patrizi,  in  offering  it,  addressed  her  Majesty  in  Latin. 
"  This  rose,"  he  said,  "  signifies  the  joy  of  the  two 

88 


The  Golden  Rose 

Jerusalems, — that  is,  of  the  Church  triumphant  and 
the  Church  militant.  This  rose  represents,  in  the 
eyes  of  all  the  faithful,  that  most  magnificent  flower, 
the  joy  of  the  saints.  Accept  this  rose,  beloved  and 
noble  daughter,  puissant  and  adorned  with  many 
gracious  qualities,  in  order  that  thou  mayest  be  still 
more  ennobled  by  all  the  virtues  in  Jesus  Christ,  like 
a  rose  planted  by  the  banks  of  a  full-flowing  stream. 
May  this  boon  be  granted  unto  thee,  through  the 
ever-abundant  favour  of  Him  Who  to  all  eternity  is 
Three  in  One." 

In  1855  the  Emperor  had  asked  the  "  blind 
Apostle,"  Mgr.  de  Segur,  to  pray  for  the  Empress 
and  for  France.  Amid  the  twofold  rejoicings  of 
March,  1856,  when  peace  had  come  and  the  throne 
was  established  by  the  birth  of  an  heir,  it  seemed 
as  if  the  prayers  of  the  saintly  Bishop  had  been 
answered. 


89 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  EMPRESS  AND  HER  COURT 

The  homes  of  the  Empress — Spiritualism  at  the  Tuileries — The 
great  balls — Masked  dances — The  "  Mondays  of  the  Empress  " 
— Orsini's  crime. 

NAPOLEON  and  Eugenie  divided  the  year  be- 
tween three  palaces — the  Tuileries,  Saint  Cloud, 
and  Compiegne.  There  were  visits  to  Fontaine- 
bleau  during  the  hunting  season,  and  an  annual 
autumn  sojourn  in  the  Villa  Eugenie  at  Biarritz. 
Two  of  the  great  houses  have  been  swept  away,  and 
it  is  at  Compiegne  that  the  Empress  is  most  vividly 
remembered.  The  little  town  by  the  Oise  has  a  clean 
and  courtly  aspect.  It  shows,  indeed,  as  Stevenson 
says,  a  fine  profile  above  the  river,  with  its  town- 
hall,  "  a  monument  of  Gothic  insecurity,"  and  the 
stately  church  of  St.  Jacques,  in  which  Joan  of  Arc 
heard  her  last  mass  before  she  was  captured  by  the 
Burgundians.  From  the  windows  of  the  Hotel  de 
la  Cloche  we  look  on  the  market  square,  which  has 
for  its  chief  ornament  a  statue  of  the  Maid.  At  all 
hours  we  hear  the  sweet  chiming  of  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  clock,  for  the  three  cavaliers  who  delighted 
"  R.  L.  S."  still  strike  their  hammers  on  the  little 
bells,  though  they  have  become  rather  awkward 
and  rheumatic  in  their  movements.  The  townsfolk 
crowd  the  square  every  Thursday  evening  to  hear 

90 


Compiegne  Palace 

an  excellent  concert  given  by  the  regimental  band. 
Irregularly  built  shops  and  houses  border  the  square 
on  all  sides,  some  with  lichen  creeping  over  the  brown 
roofs,  while  others  show  green  gardens  near  the  attic 
windows.  There  are  timbered  dwellings  with  gabled 
fronts,  which  may  be  almost  as  old  as  the  statue  of 
Louis  XII,  who  rides  for  ever  in  front  of  the  town- 
hall.  Beyond  the  steep  chimneys  there  is  a  gleam 
of  landscape,  with  fields  and  wooded  heights. 

A  ten  minutes'  walk  brings  us  to  the  palace,  which 
dates  from  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  Under  the  Second 
Empire  the  Court  was  held  here  in  October  and 
November.  There  is  nothing  homelike  now  in  that 
endless  succession  of  rooms,  filled  with  Gobelins 
tapestries  and  pretentious  flowered  furniture,  but 
the  Empress,  who  was  always  a  home-maker,  knew 
how  to  arrange  comfort  for  her  husband  and  her 
boy.  Bare  in  its  ceremonial  dignity  is  the  Salle 
des  Gardes,  a  long,  empty  room  adorned  with  the 
busts  of  Roman  Emperors,  black  Moors'  heads,  and 
clusters  of  lances.  The  Galerie  des  Fetes,  with  its 
twenty  Corinthian  pillars,  was  the  scene  of  mag- 
nificent balls  under  both  Empires.  Visitors  linger 
longest  in  the  bedroom  and  dressing-room  of  the 
Empress,  the  former  upholstered  in  crimson  and 
the  latter  in  pale  blue.  The  Empresses  Josephine 
and  Marie  Louise  occupied  these  rooms  before 
Eugenie.  The  furniture,  though  very  rich,  is  more 
sumptuous  than  convenient.  Farther  on  we  come 
to  the  dining-room  and  bedroom  of  the  Prince  Im- 
perial, drearily  formal  abodes  for  a  child.  Almost 
all  that  was  personal  and  friendly  in  this  vast  place 
has  vanished.     The  only  exceptions,  perhaps,  are 

91 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

the  chessboard  and  the  breakfast  service  of  Napoleon 
I,  which  might  have  strayed  from  the  Musee  Carna- 
valet  in  Paris.  We  carry  from  Compiegne  Palace 
the  recollection  of  cold  white  halls  and  staircases, 
giant  tapestries  representing  mythological  and  Scrip- 
ture scenes,  priceless  Sevres  vases,  and  the  dazzle 
of  silk  and  gold.  There  is  nothing  to  remind  us  that 
human  hearts  loved  and  suffered  within  these  walls, 
and  that  here  was  played  the  first  act  in  the  Em- 
press's drama.  We  can  understand  the  impulse 
which  drove  her  in  all  weathers  to  the  green  forest 
which  stretches  for  miles  beyond  the  park,  the  forest 
with  its  dim  alleys,  in  which  the  first  words  of  love 
were  spoken  to  her  by  Napoleon,  as  their  horses 
paced  side  by  side  among  the  fallen  leaves.  The 
woodland  was  her  trysting-place,  and  to-day  the 
widest  and  most  romantic  of  the  forest  glades  is 
known  as  the  Avenue  Eugenie.  The  Empress  was 
a  child  of  the  sunlight  and  the  open  air,  a  rapid  and 
untiring  walker.  She  loved  to  watch  the  barges 
moving  up  and  down  the  Oise  on  autumn  after- 
noons, past  the  willow-clad  islet  in  mid-stream  and 
the  rowan  trees  which  bend  their  red  clusters  near 
the  bridge.  Even  in  rainy  Novembers  she  was  out 
of  doors  each  day,  and  would  mock  at  the  Court 
ladies  who  dreaded  soiled  skirts  or  muddy  boots. 

Parties  of  guests  were  invited  to  Compiegne  for 
visits  of  a  week's  duration.  All  were  free  until 
luncheon,  and  at  two  o'clock  the  afternoon's  pro- 
gramme was  arranged.  The  Empress's  favourite 
drive  was  to  Pierrefonds,  ten  miles  from  Compiegne. 
Chars-a-bancs,  holding  twelve  or  fifteen  persons, 
often  conveyed  a  merry  company  to  this  old  feudal 

92 


Pierrefonds 

castle,  which  had  been  restored  at  a  cost  of  5,000,000 
francs  by  Viollet-le-Duc.  Eugenie  called  it  her 
Windsor,  and  used  often  to  travel  as  Countess  of 
Pierrefonds.  She  admired  the  motto  of  the  ancient 
lords,  "  Qui  veult  peult,"  and  it  gave  her  pleasure 
to  appear  as  Semiramis,  the  central  figure  in  the 
group  of  nine  heroines  over  the  hearth  in  the  "  Salle 
des  Preuses." 

The  Castle  of  Pierrefonds,  as  it  towers  above  the 
lake  and  village,  looks  like  the  habitation  of  giants 
of  the  primeval  world.  Enemies  might  batter  in 
vain  against  these  huge  walls,  pierced  at  rare  in- 
tervals by  narrow  loopholes.  Incidents  of  the  siege 
of  Torquilstone  come  to  mind  as  we  examine  this 
tremendous  fortress.  The  least  imaginative  visitor, 
as  he  crosses  the  drawbridge  and  enters  the  lordly 
courtyard  of  the  Castle,  must  realize  something  of 
the  glory  and  chivalry  of  the  knights  of  old.  France 
recognizes  that  the  money  spent  in  the  restoration 
was  well  invested.  Gay  picnics  were  held  here  in 
the  Empress's  time,  but  to-day  the  Castle  is  purely 
a  show-place,  and  to  historical  students  a  priceless 
object-lesson  in  mediaeval  architecture.  There  are 
memories  of  Eugenie  also  at  the  Ponds  of  Saint 
Pierre,  on  the  road  from  Pierrefonds  to  Vieux  Moulin. 
The  gamekeeper's  lodge,  still  known  as  "le  chalet  de 
l'lmperatrice,"  was  the  favourite  rendezvous  for 
hunting-parties.  The  traveller  who  stands  here,  as 
I  did,  on  a  rainy  autumn  evening,  with  the  wild  wood 
sobbing  around  and  the  last  rays  of  light  glistening 
on  the  pale  and  reed-fringed  waters,  must  realize  the 
agonizing  contrasts  of  the  Empress's  life.  Who  so 
gay  as  Eugenie  when  she  sat  here  on  horseback 

93 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

among  her  courtiers,  the  blithest  and  most  fearless 
of  them  all  ?  Who  so  lonely  as  the  widowed 
Sovereign,  when  she  crept  back  to  this  place  long 
after  her  downfall,  attended  by  one  aged  lady, 
Madame  Lebreton,  the  faithful  companion  of  her 
wanderings  ?  The  broodings  of  the  melancholy 
Richard  II  have  been  realized  for  Napoleon  III 
and  his  consort  : — 

What  must  the  King  do  now  ?  must  he  submit  ? 
The  King  shall  do  it ;  must  he  be  deposed  ? 
The  King  shall  be  contented ;  must  he  lose 
The  name  of  King  ?     O,  God's  name,  let  it  go. 
I'll  give  my  jewels  for  a  set  of  beads, 
My  gorgeous  palace  for  a  hermitage, 
My  subjects  for  a  pair  of  carved  saints, 
And  my  large  kingdom  for  a  little  grave, 
A  little,  little  grave. 

When  the  guests  returned  to  Compiegne  for  the 
evening,  amusements  of  many  sorts  were  devised. 
Countess  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie  mentions  the  char- 
ades, "  often  very  badly  played,  our  dear  Empress 
always  taking  the  least  important  parts."  Charades 
and  tableaux  vivants  were  always  popular  under  the 
Empire.  Clever  writers,  like  Prosper  Merimee  and 
Octave  Feuillet,  were  employed  to  arrange  them. 
One  tableau  represented  the  word  "  Harmonic" 
In  the  first  scene,  "  Armes,"  that  gifted  sculptor, 
the  Count  de  Nieuwerkerke,  was  seen  arming  a  young 
knight,  whose  part  was  taken,  it  is  said,  by  the  grace- 
ful Countess  Fleury.  In  the  second,  "Au  Nid,"  the 
Prince  Imperial  was  shown  reclining  in  a  bowery 
nest.  Another  word  chosen  was  "  ermite,"  in  which 
the  syllables  were  divided  as  "  air  "  and  "  my  the," 

94 


Guests  at  Compiegne 

and  the  whole  turned  on  the  temptation  of  St.  An- 
thony. A  spelling-bee  occasionally  beguiled  the 
dull  hours  before  bedtime,  and  it  was  said  that  the 
Austrian  Ambassador,  Prince  Metternich,  made  the 
fewest  blunders.  Blind-man's  buff  was  another 
favourite  game,  at  which  the  ladies  tried  hard  to 
catch  the  Emperor.  "  The  truth  is,"  writes  a  great 
lady  who  was  often  a  guest  at  Compiegne,  "  we  did 
little  else  than  dress  and  chatter  and  undress." 

The  Empress  was  an  excellent  hostess,  encouraging 
compliments  to  other  ladies,  and  exerting  herself  to 
set  shy  and  youthful  visitors  at  their  ease.  Literary 
men,  artists,  and  musicians  were  frequently  invited 
to  her  "  series  "  of  Compiegne  entertainments.  It 
was  said,  indeed,  that  the  lovely  Eugenie,  satiated 
with  compliments  to  her  beauty,  wished  to  be  known 
as  a  woman  of  intelligence  and  culture,  the  friend  of 
philosophers  and  poets.  The  ladies  were  asked  to 
choose  the  gentleman  who  should  take  them  in  to 
dinner,  and  in  this  connection  an  amusing  story  is 
told  of  Sainte-Beuve.  On  his  first  visit  to  Compiegne 
a  pretty  girl  came  up  to  him  and  said,  "  M.  Sainte- 
Beuve,  will  you  take  me  to  dinner  ?  "  The  author, 
puzzled  by  such  a  request,  and  wondering  whether 
any  "  cabaret  "  or  restaurant  was  likely  to  be  found 
near  the  palace,  hesitated  and  stammered.  What 
would  their  Majesties  think  if  he  were  to  be  running 
out  at  night  with  young  ladies  ?  Nor  was  he  satis- 
fied until  Princess  Mathilde  explained  the  custom 
of  the  chateau. 

A  glimpse  of  life  at  Compiegne  is  given  by  the  Earl 
of  Malmesbury  in  Memoirs  of  an  ex-Minister.  Writ- 
ing in   1857,  he   says  :    "  The   English   ladies  who 

95 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

went  to  Compiegne  for  the  fetes  have  just  returned, 
and  seem  to  have  been  greatly  amused.  They  were 
struck  by  the  freedom  in  conversation  and  manners 
of  the  Court,  which  is  most  remarkable  in  Princess 
Mathilde.  Their  forgetfulness  of  all  convenances  is 
quite  incredible,  and  in  more  than  one  instance 
excited  the  disgust  of  the  Empress  as  well  as  of  her 
guests.'' 

Fontainebleau  was  a  less  favourite  hunting-centre 
than  Compiegne,  but  the  Court  was  usually  there 
for  a  few  weeks  in  the  autumn  and  occasionally  in 
the  early  summer.  The  Empress  had  her  gondolas 
and  caiques  on  the  lake,  and  it  was  in  this  palace 
that  she  arranged  the  curiosities  brought  from  China 
after  the  war  of  i860.  Here,  as  at  Saint  Cloud,  she 
loved  to  go  in  disguise  to  the  rustic  fairs.  In  1858, 
when  the  Queen  of  the  Netherlands  was  staying  in 
Paris,  the  Prince  of  Nassau  decided  to  play  a  practical 
joke  on  the  Empress.  She  had  gone  to  buy  ginger- 
bread at  the  fair  of  Fontainebleau,  and  the  Prince, 
wearing  a  workman's  blouse  and  cap,  accosted  her 
somewhat  roughly  in  the  forest.  The  Empress, 
failing  to  recognize  her  guest  in  his  disguise,  screamed 
out,  her  people  rushed  to  her  assistance,  and  the 
rumour  spread  through  Paris  that  there  had  been  an 
attempt  at  assassination. 

Sometimes  Napoleon  accompanied  his  wife  in  the 
dress  of  a  modest  bourgeois  to  these  country  fairs. 
Emperor  and  Empress  would  go  into  the  circus- 
booths,  and  enjoy  the  fun  unrecognized.  It  was 
their  custom  to  send  next  day  some  handsome 
gift  which  revealed  their  identity.  On  one  occasion, 
at  Saint  Cloud,  the  Empress  interested  herself  in 

96 


THE      EMPEROR      NAPOLEON      III. 


Amusements  of  the  Court 

the  "  giant  "  of  a  circus,  and  helped  him  to  a  better 
position. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  Empire,  a  certain  wild- 
ness  was  noted  in  Eugenie's  mirth.  The  story  is 
told  that  she  went  to  one  of  the  tall  Cent-Gardes 
who  was  on  duty  in  the  corridor  of  a  palace,  and 
gently  slapped  him  on  the  cheek  to  see  if  he  could 
be  startled  out  of  his  imperturbable  composure. 
The  effort  failed.  The  soldier  remained  motionless, 
not  a  smile  or  a  frown  disturbing  his  solemn  counte- 
nance. Five  hundred  francs  were  offered  him  as  a 
reward,  but  he  refused  the  money,  saying  it  was 
honour  enough  for  him  that  the  hand  of  his  beautiful 
Sovereign  should  have  rested  for  a  moment  on  his 
face. 

At  Rambouillet  one  evening,  during  a  romp  which 
followed  a  hunting  party,  the  Empress  filled  her 
pockets  with  flour  and  scattered  it  over  the  com- 
pany. Many  anecdotes  of  a  similar  kind  might  be 
narrated.  The  Empress  had  been  brought  up  in  free- 
dom, without  a  check  on  her  wayward  impulses, 
and  she  could  not  quite  abandon  the  gay  licence  of 
Carabanchel,  even  after  she  had  become  the  mistress 
of  a  Court.  Her  childish  frolics  were  often  followed 
by  relapses  into  a  haughty  mood,  as  if  she  wished 
to  throw  round  her  too  hastily  the  cloak  of  majesty. 
By  the  uncertainty  of  her  temper  the  Empress  often 
gave  unwitting  offence  to  the  great  personages  near 
the  throne. 

One  of  the  strangest  incidents  of  Court  life  in  the 
year  following  the  birth  of  the  Prince  Imperial  was 
the  appearance  of  Home,  the  medium,  at  the  Tuil- 
eries.     At  the  French  Court  the  astrologer  and  the 

H  97 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

wizard  had  ever  found  a  welcome.  Home  was  the 
natural  successor  of  Galeotti,  in  Quentin  Durward. 
The  Second  Empire,  with  all  its  boasted  enlighten- 
ment, was  in  such  matters  little  further  advanced 
than  the  Valois  Court  under  Catherine  de*  Medici. 
That  was  an  age  when  books  on  fortune-telling  and 
the  black  art  were  multiplied,  when  Nostradamus 
uttered  startling  prophecies  about  the  first  men  of 
the  kingdom,  when  even  a  highly  cultured  prelate 
and  eminent  preacher,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine, 
went  in  disguise,  while  in  Rome,  to  consult  a  sooth- 
sayer. The  ladies  of  the  nineteenth  century  were 
not  less  credulous  than  their  predecessors.  They 
had  not  quite  shaken  off  the  belief  in 

Nimble  jugglers  that  deceive  the  eye, 
Dark- working  sorcerers  that  change  the  mind, 
Soul-killing  witches  that  deform  the  body, 
Disguised  cheaters,  prating  mountebanks, 
And  many  such- like  liberties  of  sin.* 

We  know  from  a  remarkable  letter  written  by 
Lacordaire  to  Madame  Swetchine  that  in  1853 
spiritualistic  phenomena  were  attracting  notice  in 
France. 

"Have  you  seen  tables  turn  and  heard  them  talk ?" 
he  asks.  "  I  would  not  condescend  to  see  the  turn- 
ing, as  I  thought  that  was  too  simple  a  business, 
but  I  have  heard  them  talk  and  made  them  talk. 
They  have  told  me  some  very  remarkable  things 
about  the  past  and  the  present.  Extraordinary  as 
this  may  be,  for  a  Christian  who  believes  in  spirits 
it  is  a  very  poor  and  vulgar  phenomenon.  In  all 
ages  there  have  been  methods,  more  or  less  eccentric, 
of  communicating  with   spirits."     If  a  saint  could 

•  The  Comedy  of  Errors. 
98 


Home  the  Medium 

write  in  this  tone  to  another  saint,  need  we  wonder 
if  the  frivolous  Court  of  the  Second  Empire  was  led 
away  by  the  trickeries  of  Home  ?  Lacordaire  re- 
fuses to  accept  these  manifestations  as  a  sign  that 
"  Antichrist  is  near,"  but  he  thinks  "  the  poor  un- 
believers must  be  much  disquieted,  and  he  ends 
solemnly  with  the  words,  "  O  profondeur  des  juge- 
ments  de  Dieu  !  " 

The  Emperor's  character  was  strongly  tinctured 
with  superstition.  In  the  life  of  Cardinal  Mathieu 
we  read  that  he  showed  the  Cardinal  the  talisman 
he  constantly  wore,  which  had  belonged  to  Charle- 
magne. "  Like  Charlemagne,"  he  said,  "  I  believe 
in  my  star."  The  prelate  hastened  to  point  out 
that  such  a  confidence  was  not  Christian  but  fatalistic, 
and  that  Charlemagne  did  not  believe  in  any  star, 
but  in  the  protection  of  the  saints.  It  is  doubtful, 
however,  whether  the  Emperor  was  personally  in- 
fluenced by  Home.  The  knockings  on  walls  and 
floors,  the  gyrations  of  furniture — tables  waddling 
across  the  room  like  the  bell  in  Goethe's  poem — must 
have  seemed  to  him  a  contemptible  pastime.  The 
Empress,  on  the  other  hand,  came  strongly  under 
the  spell  of  the  medium.  Countess  Tascher  de  la 
Pagerie  describes  Douglas  Home,  or  Hume,  as  a 
young  Scotsman  aged  twenty-one  or  twenty-two. 
His  appearance  was  prepossessing,  his  manners 
simple  and  modest.  He  called  himself  an  American, 
and  claimed  connection  with  the  ducal  house  of 
Hamilton,  the  arms  of  which  he  bore  engraved  upon 
his  seal.  Neither  time  nor  space,  it  was  believed, 
had  any  existence  for  him.  Through  his  means  the 
spirits  of  St.  Louis,  Pascal,  Rousseau,  and  even 
ancient    worthies    like    Aristides    and    Solon,    were 

99 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

solemnly  consulted,  and  replied  with  touching 
alacrity. 

Earl  Granville  saw  something  of  the  medium's 
tricks.  "A  certain  Mr.  Hume  produces  hands,  raises 
heavy  tables  four  feet  from  the  ground  with  a  finger, 
knocks  on  the  Emperor's  hand  from  a  distance. 
The  Emperor  is  rather  pleased  at  the  table  coming 
more  to  him  than  to  others,  but  seeing  Lady  Gran- 
ville and  me  look  incredulous,  he  broke  off,  saying, 
'  They  think  us  mad,  and  Lord  Granville  will  report 
that  the  alliance  is  on  a  most  unstable  footing.'  " 

Table-turning   and   spirit-rapping   became   the 

amusements  of  every  drawing-room.     The  medium's 

glance  was  keen,  and  yet  gently  mournful,  as  if  he 

sought  to  inspire  pity.     His  behaviour  was  smooth 

and   ingratiating,    and   he    spoke    French   fluently, 

though  with  a  marked  British  accent.     He  said  that 

his  mother,  who  was  also  a  medium,  had  frequently 

appeared  to  him,  and  had  advised  him  to  give  up 

the  Protestant  faith  and  become  a  Roman  Catholic. 

She  revealed  herself  in  dreams  and  visions,  assuring 

him  of  immortality.     He  had  seen  the  lost  souls  in 

hell,  and  the  suffering  spirits  in  purgatory.     "  He 

magnetized  us  all,"  said  the  Countess,  "by  his  superior 

power."     Home  was  invited  to  the  most  exclusive 

houses  in  Paris,  where  great  ladies  bowed  before  him. 

He  enjoyed  that  intoxicating  experience  described 

by  his   fellow-charlatan,   Browning's   "  Sludge   the 

Medium": —  v     c   ,       ,     .      a    , 

You  find  you  re  in  a  flock 

Of  the  youthful,  earnest,  passionate — genius,  beauty, 

Rank  and  wealth  also,  if  you  care  for  these, 

And  all  depose  their  natural  rights,  hail  you 

(That's  me,  sir)  as  their  mate  and  yokefellow, 

Participate  in  Sludgehood,  nay,  grow  mine. 

IOO 


The  Downfall  of  Home 

The  statesmen  round  the  Emperor  detested  the 
impostor.  On  his  first  evening  at  the  Tuileries, 
Home,  who  was  sitting  with  the  crinolined  ladies  at 
a  table  in  the  mysterious  twilight,  suddenly  an- 
nounced that  two  unbelievers  were  present,  the 
Duke  of  Bassano  and  Count  Walewski,  and  that 
until  they  left,  the  spirit  would  not  be  propitious. 
The  Emperor  laughingly  asked  them  to  go,  but  from 
that  time  Walewski,  then  Foreign  Minister,  kept 
Home  under  observation.  He  may  not  have  be- 
lieved, as  some  did,  that  the  young  man  was  secretly 
an  agent  of  the  Court  of  Berlin,  but  he  saw  that  the 
medium  was  exerting  an  unwholesome  influence. 
In  an  evil  hour  for  himself,  Home  began  to  meddle 
with  politics  and  allowed  his  spirits  to  criticize  the 
actions  of  the  Council.  Walewski  then  went  to  the 
Emperor  and  demanded  his  immediate  dismissal. 
The  juggler  was  permitted  to  accompany  the  Court 
to  Biarritz,  but  foreign  correspondence  began  to  re- 
mark on  his  intimacy  with  the  Empress,  Walewski 
again  became  urgent,  and  Home  disappeared  as 
suddenly  as  he  had  come.  Superstition  was  not 
rooted  out  by  his  departure,  as  we  may  gather  from 
a  story  in  Madame  Adam's  recent  book,  Mes  Sou- 
venirs et  Nos  Id<fes  avant  1870. 

Madame  Adam  mentions  that  Napoleon,  towards 
the  end  of  his  reign,  consulted  the  "  prophet  "  Ed- 
mond  about  the  manner  of  his  death. 

"  Shall  I  be  assassinated  ?  " 

"  No,  sir." 

"  Shall  I  die  of  disease  ?  " 

"  Yes,  in  your  bed." 

"  The  disease  I  am  suffering  from  now  ?  " 


IOI 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

"  Yes." 

"  Tell  me  the  truth  at  once.  I  wish  to  know  it." 
"  The  truth,  sir  ;  do  you  really  want  to  know  that? 
Well  then,  it  would  be  better  for  you  to  die  at  once, 
for  you  will  have  to  suffer  the  most  cruel  trials  of 
your  life  before  a  year  is  out,  and  France  also  through 
you.  The  hour  of  your  rise  is  over,  the  descent  is 
beginning." 

"  Could  I  have  avoided  it  ?  " 
"  Twice,  if  you  had  had  the  energy  to  will." 
"  Home  predicted  that  my  son  would  not  reign." 
"  No  son  of  a  Napoleon  who  has  reigned  will  ever 
ascend  the  throne." 

Healthy  -  minded  men  and  women  soon  turned 
in  disgust  from  the  peepings  and  mutterings  of 
spiritualism.  If  the  Emperor,  in  his  declining  years, 
consulted  prophets  as  the  unhappy  Saul  sought  out 
the  witch  of  Endor,  he  had  not  surrendered  himself 
to  that  malign  influence  at  the  summit  of  his  reign. 
The  day  was  far  distant  when  Napoleon,  like  Saul, 
was  to  say  to  the  familiars  of  his  household,  "  All  of 
you  have  conspired  against  me,  and  there  is  none  of 
you  that  is  sorry  for  me."  The  first  decade  of  the 
Empire  was  one  long  succession  of  pageants.  Cholera, 
floods,  and  famine  devastated  the  country ;  the 
Crimean  War  swept  away  thousands  of  France's 
bravest  sons,  and  still,  without  interruption,  the 
dance  continued.  An  extravagance  undreamt  of 
under  the  "bourgeois"  King,  Louis  Philippe,  was 
practised  by  the  upper  classes  and  encouraged  by 
the  Sovereigns.  The  Moniteur,  as  M.  de  la  Gorce 
reminds  us,  argued  that  "  the  expense  incurred  for 
a  great  ball  descends  like  a  rain  of  gold  upon  all  our 

102 


Luxury  of  the  Court 

industries."  The  historian  of  the  Second  Empire 
compares  Napoleon  and  Eugenie  to  the  tenants  of  a 
magnificently  furnished  house,  which  has  belonged  to 
many  owners.  "  The  new  hosts  are  kindly,  generous, 
delighted  with  all  around  them,  but  they  do  not  know 
their  way  about  their  new  domain,  and  are  apt  to  get 
lost  themselves  and  to  lose  their  friends."  "  Almost 
all  at  that  Court,"  he  remarks,  "  were  a  little  in- 
toxicated." Men  and  women  regarded  the  new  reign 
as  a  "  cotillion  ever  danced  again."  Already  a 
horde  of  foreigners  was  descending  on  the  Tuileries, 
bringing  with  them  a  licence  of  manners  which  dis- 
gusted, not  only  the  old  nobility  of  the  Faubourg 
Saint-Germain,  but  all  the  more  respectable  classes. 
Lord  Malmesbury  tells  how  two  of  the  Empress's  ladies 
— Madame  de  Pierre,  an  American,  and  the  Duchess 
of  Morny,  a  Russian, — during  an  omnibus  journey 
11  smoked  all  the  way  in  the  Empress's  face,  not- 
withstanding her  plain  hints  against  the  proceed- 
ing. She  is  much  too  good-natured  to  her  entourage. 
.  .  .  The  genre  of  the  women  about  her,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Madame  Walewska,  is  vile."  * 

Earl  Granville  recalls  a  dinner-party  of  April, 
1857.  "I  sat  next  to  the  Empress,  who  is  easy  to 
get  on  with.  She  inquired  of  me  what  sort  of  a 
person  the  Empress  of  Russia  was.  I  said  that  I 
believed  she  was  clever,  and  well-informed,  but  that 
I  had  never  heard  her  ask  anything  but  whether  one 
had  danced  much  at  the  last  ball.  '  Mais,  voyez- 
vous,'  said  Eugenie,  fit  is  not  easy  always  to  find 
questions  to  ask.'  " 

*  The  word  "vile"  must  not  be  too  literally  understood,  as  Malmes- 
bury goes  on  to  complain  of  the  coiffure  and  dresses  of  the  ladies. 

'03 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

Many  eye-witnesses  have  left  us  descriptions  of 
the  great  balls  under  the  Empire.  Five  or  six  were 
given  during  the  season,  and  the  invitations  often 
numbered  four  thousand.  "  Everybody  who  was 
anybody/'  French  subject  or  foreigner,  might  with- 
out difficulty  secure  an  entrance.  The  men  were 
asked  to  come  in  uniform,  and  the  halls  of  the  Tuil- 
eries  sparkled  with  the  red  and  gold  of  the  Imperial 
chamberlains,  the  sky-blue  and  silver  of  the  officers. 
On  the  steps  of  the  staircase  were  ranged  the  superb 
Cent-Gardes,  with  their  breast-plates  of  polished  steel. 
The  toilettes  and  diamonds  of  the  women  were  per- 
haps the  most  magnificent  ever  seen  in  Europe. 
Dancing  began  at  10.30,  and  at  eleven  the  Emperor 
and  Empress  walked  slowly  round  the  halls,  Eugenie 
greeting  the  guests  with  her  famous  "  undulating 
bow."  About  midnight  the  Imperial  pair  retired 
to  their  apartments,  and  by  one  o'clock  carriages 
were  already  rolling  away  from  the  palace,  though 
the  balls  did  not  close  till  3  a.m. 

The  fancy-dress  dances  were  very  beautiful.  It 
was  for  one  of  these  that  the  young  Countess 
Tascher  de  la  Pagerie  arranged  the  "  Quadrille  of 
the  Bees."  Twelve  young  ladies,  dressed  to  re- 
present the  Napoleonic  emblem,  were  brought  to 
the  entrance  of  the  ballrooms  in  golden  hives. 
Servants  of  the  Opera,  disguised  as  gardeners, 
carried  the  hives.  When  the  Bees  streamed  out 
and  danced  a  graceful  minuet,  the  guests  applauded 
loudly  and  the  Prince  Imperial  clapped  his  tiny  hands. 
At  one  of  these  balls  the  Empress  wore  the  costume 
of  a  Doge's  wife,  Princess  Metternich  appeared  as 
a  black  demon,  and  Madame  Alphonse  de  Roth- 
schild as  a  bird  of  paradise. 

104 


Masked   Balls 

Entertainments  of  a  more  objectionable  kind  were 
the  masked  balls  which  Princess  Metternich  helped 
to  make  fashionable.  "  The  Empress  " — it  was  said — 
"  is  too  mischievous  in  a  domino."  These  balls 
were  popular  in  the  winter  following  the  war  in  Italy, 
and  the  Abbe  Deguerry,  Cure  of  the  Madeleine,  who 
was  destined  to  a  martyr's  fate  along  with  Arch- 
bishop Darboy,  boldly  condemned  the  practice  in 
a  sermon  preached  before  the  Sovereigns  in  the 
chapel  of  the  Tuileries.  At  the  Foreign  Office,  the 
Admiralty,  and  the  Austrian  Embassy,  masked  balls 
had  been  recently  given,  and  the  Abbe  showed  no 
slight  courage  in  denouncing  society's  favourite 
pastime.  The  Emperor,  we  are  told,  listened  with 
half-shut  eyes,  the  Empress  moved  uncomfortably, 
looked  up  with  a  questioning  glance  at  the  out- 
spoken preacher,  and  immediately  resumed  her 
attitude  of  devout  attention. 

Less  formal  than  the  State  balls  were  the  "  Mon- 
days of  the  Empress,"  at  which  all  the  guests  must 
be  personally  known  to  their  Majesties.  For  these 
parties  only  five  or  six  hundred  cards  were  sent  out. 
The  young  were  carefully  considered,  and  many  a 
happy  marriage  was  arranged  by  the  Empress.  As 
Granier  de  Cassagnac  remarks,  "  Her  words  were 
often  like  those  sudden  lightning  flashes  which  make 
us  shut  our  eyes,  but  which  leave  after  them  a  bluer 
sky  and  a  purer  atmosphere."  The  Empress  re- 
ceived her  guests  for  the  "  Lundis  "  in  a  boudoir 
hung  with  old  tapestries  in  soft  colours,  which 
opened  from  the  Salon  du  premier  Consul.  In  this 
large  hall,  and  sometimes  in  the  Salle  des  Mare- 
chaux,  a  dance  closed  the  evening. 

ios 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

Presentations  were  usually  made  in  the  Salon  du 
premier  Consul.  Men  were  introduced  by  the  Duke 
of  Bassano,  women  by  the  Princess  d'Essling.  The 
usual  time  for  presentations  was  on  the  evening 
of  a  State  ball. 

The  hospitality  of  the  Tuileries  was  generous,  as 
might  be  expected  from  the  character  of  the  hosts. 
In  the  Galerie  de  Diane,  on  ball  nights,  a  sumptuous 
buffet  supper  was  provided.  During  the  winter,  on 
Thursday  evenings,  there  were  the  State  dinners, 
to  which  politicians,  ambassadors,  and  officials  of 
the  higher  grades  were  invited.  The  Empress, 
Madame  Carette  tells  us,  was  able  to  recognize  faces 
after  long  intervals,  and  could  recall  family  relation- 
ships and  the  personal  circumstances  of  her  guests. 
"  She  would  remain  standing  through  a  whole  even- 
ing, going  from  group  to  group,  and  trying  to  make 
herself  agreeable  to  all."  The  same  faithful  chron- 
icler informs  us  that  the  Empress  usually  went  away 
from  these  receptions  in  a  state  of  extreme  physical 
weariness. 

Sometimes  she  could  hardly  take  time  to  call  her 
women,  but  before  entering  her  dressing-room  would 
tear  off  the  diadem  and  jewels  whose  weight  op- 
pressed her,  and  throw  them  carelessly  into  the  lap 
of  Madame  Carette.  Some  of  these  glittering  play- 
things were  worth  a  fortune.  Perhaps  the  most 
curious  was  the  great  yellow  diamond,  as  large  as  a 
small  walnut,  which  Eugenie  had  caused  to  be 
mounted  on  a  comb  along  with  other  jewels.  The 
singular  story  is  told  that  this  diamond  had  been 
swallowed  by  one  of  the  insurgents  of  1848,  during 
the  plunder  of  the  Tuileries.    Internal  mischief  super- 

106 


Eugenie's  Reading 

vened,  and  the  wretched  thief  died  in  torture,  con- 
fessing his  crime.  In  a  post-mortem  examination 
the  stone  was  recovered.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  jewels  in  the  regalia,  but  when  the  Em- 
press heard  its  history  she  very  naturally  gave  up 
wearing  it. 

During  Lent,  concerts  organized  by  Auber  took 
the  place  of  balls.  At  the  Tuileries  on  Good  Friday 
the  Stabat  Mater  was  sung  in  the  chapel.  Ladies 
attended  by  invitation,  wearing  low-cut  mourning 
gowns,  with  veils  of  black  lace. 

In  the  intervals  of  gaiety  the  Empress  found  time 
for  serious  reading.  She  took  lessons  in  French 
history  from  M.  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  who  praised 
her  literary  taste.  In  the  Life  of  Victor  Cousin 
there  is  an  interesting  letter,  acknowledging  the  gift 
of  a  book. 

"  I  beg  to  thank  you,  sir,"  writes  the  Empress, 
"  for  having  sent  me  your  work  on  French  society 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  still  more  for  the 
kind  letter  which  accompanied  it.  You  must  have 
known  how  much  pleasure  you  would  give  me,  for 
I  appreciate  at  their  full  value  all  these  noble  works 
which  retrace  for  us  with  life-like  fidelity  the  society 
of  past  ages.  The  picture  is  enhanced  by  that  superb 
language  which  is  the  glory  of  our  literature.  I 
regard  it  also  as  one  of  the  fortunate  circumstances 
of  this  reign  that  a  man  of  your  importance  should 
render  such  signal  justice  to  the  Emperor's  efforts 
for  the  public  good,  and  that  the  venerable  philo- 
sopher should  greet  with  patriotic  hope  the  future  of 
my  son." 

Eugenie  was  a  very  rapid  reader,  and  the  duties 

107 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

of  Madame  Wagner,  and  afterwards  of  Madame 
Carette  (nee  Bouvet),  her  official  "  lectrices,"  were 
very  much  of  a  sinecure.  Sometimes  she  would  ask 
one  of  her  ladies  to  read  her  to  sleep.  The  papers 
of  the  day  were  sent  her  each  evening  by  the  Home 
Minister. 

The  most  restful  time  of  the  Empress's  year  was 
that  spent  at  the  Villa  Eugenie  at  Biarritz.  The 
Court  went  there  for  a  month  or  five  weeks  at  the 
beginning  of  September.  The  house  was  comfort- 
ably furnished  in  the  English  style,  and  had  large 
rooms  suitable  for  dancing.  From  the  terrace  there 
is  a  magnificent  view  of  the  ocean.  When  mis- 
fortunes came  the  Empress  sold  her  southern  home, 
which  was  transformed  into  a  casino.  Prosper 
Merimee  was  a  frequent  guest  of  their  Majesties  at 
Biarritz.  His  talent  for  organizing  amusements 
made  him  indispensable  to  the  Court.  Almost  to 
the  close  of  the  Empire  he  was  the  indefatigable 
organizer  of  balls,  picnics,  charades  and  tableaux. 
He  himself  confesses  that  the  private  theatricals 
were  not  always  refined  or  delicate  :  "  Nous  avons 
joue  avec  succes,"  he  says,  "  une  piece  un  peu  im- 
morale."  At  Biarritz  the  "  Chevalier  de  lTmpera- 
trice  "  was  received  on  the  most  familiar  footing. 
"  Venez  sans  culottes  "  was  one  of  the  telegrams  of 
invitation.  Sometimes  Merimee  ventured  to  oppose 
the  plans  of  his  hostess,  risking  without  fear  her  out- 
breaks of  petulance.  Thus  he  struggled  hard  against 
her  project  of  a  trip  round  Spain  in  the  Imperial 
yacht  L'Aigle,  in  1863.  Spain  was  at  that  time  even 
more  unsettled  than  usual,  and  serious  disturbances 
were  feared  if  the  Empress  landed  in  Andalusia. 

108 


Life  at   Biarritz 

Persuasions  and  arguments  proved  vain.  "  She 
will  never  give  up,"  wrote  Merimee,  "  and  the  trip 
is  to  come  off."  Fortunately,  no  political  troubles 
came,  and  the  Empress  derived  much  benefit  from 
the  cruise. 

"  The  Villa,"  wrote  Merimee  to  Panizzi,  "is  a 
very  pretty  little  one,  rather  too  near  the  sea,  which 
makes  more  noise  than  I  care  about.  .  .  .  The  other 
day  the  Prince  Imperial  had  his  first  bath  in  the  sea, 
and  very  stupidly,  according  to  my  ideas,  he  was 
thrown  in  head  first,  and  was  extremely  frightened 
in  consequence.  He  was  reproached  for  his  timidity 
and  asked  why  he  who  was  not  afraid  of  a  cannon- 
ball  was  afraid  of  the  sea.  He  replied  very  promptly, 
•  Because  I  command  the  cannon  and  I  don't  com- 
mand the  sea  !  '  "  The  little  boy  was  at  that  time 
only  five. 

Between  the  conclusion  of  the  Peace  of  Paris  in 
March,  1856,  and  the  declaration  of  war  against 
Austria  at  Easter,  1859,  two  events  of  personal  in- 
terest broke  the  monotony  of  Court  life.  One  was 
Orsini's  attempt  to  assassinate  the  Emperor  and 
Empress,  the  other  the  brilliant  festivities  of  Cher- 
bourg, when  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert 
again  visited  their  hosts  of  1855. 

Orsini's  plot  was  hatched  in  England,  a  country 
which  Louis  XVIII  had  described  as  not  only  the 
consoler  of  the  afflicted,  but  the  refuge  of  criminals. 
At  Birmingham  the  assassin  found  an  accomplice 
in  Pieri,  a  fellow-countryman  who  earned  his  living 
as  a  teacher  of  languages.  Orsini,  who  was  a  native 
of  the  Papal  States,  had  led  an  adventurous  life  and 
had  been  imprisoned  for  conspiracy.     Pieri  was  a 

109 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

convicted  thief.  A  Frenchman  named  Bernard 
and  two  Italians,  Gomez  and  Rudio,  were  also  in 
the  secret.  Orsini  had  seen  at  Brussels  some  bombs 
of  small  size,  intended  for  the  murder  of  the  Emperor, 
He  caused  similar  implements  to  be  made  for  him 
by  a  Birmingham  engineer  named  Taylor.  This 
man  acted  in  good  faith,  believing  that  the  bombs 
were  intended  for  use  in  war.  When  all  was  ready 
Orsini  travelled  to  France  through  Belgium,  having 
provided  himself  with  a  false  passport.  His  com- 
panions joined  him,  and  by  the  evening  of  Thurs- 
day, 14  January,  1858,  all  was  ready  for  the  blow. 
The  papers  had  announced  that  on  this  night  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  were  going  to  the  Opera. 
Pieri,  who  was  known  to  the  police,  and  against 
whom  a  warning  had  been  received  from  the  French 
Legation  at  Brussels,  was  arrested  at  the  post  as- 
signed to  him  in  the  Rue  Lepelletier.  A  bomb,  a 
revolver,  and  a  dagger  were  found  on  his  person.  It 
was  too  late,  unhappily,  to  warn  the  Emperor. 
Orsini,  Gomez,  and  Rudio  were  at  their  posts  as 
the  Imperial  carriage,  preceded  by  a  mounted  escort, 
drew  near  to  the  Opera  House.  As  the  carriage  was 
entering  the  private  passage,  a  terrific  explosion  rent 
the  air,  followed  instantly  by  a  second  and  a  third. 
The  miscreants  had  flung  their  bombs  with  so  good 
an  aim  that  the  Emperor's  hat  was  riddled  with  frag- 
ments of  shell.*  A  scene  of  indescribable  confusion 
followed.  The  facade  of  the  Opera  had  been  illumi- 
nated with  gas,  but  the  lights  went  out  at  the  mo- 
ment of  the  explosion.  In  the  darkness  were  heard 
the  shrieks  of  wounded  men  and  women  mingled 

*  The  Empress  kept  it  ever  afterwards  among  her  treasure*. 

no 


Orsini's   Crime 

with  the  hail  of  falling  glass.  Quickly  it  was  dis- 
covered that  their  Majesties  had  escaped  unhurt,  and 
amidst  the  universal  horror  and  bewilderment,  a 
shout  of  joy  was  raised.  The  manager  of  the  Opera 
sprang  forward  to  give  his  arm  to  the  Empress. 
"  No,"  she  said  firmly,  "  I  will  get  out  of  the  carriage 
alone.  Let  us  show  them  that  we  have  more  courage 
than  they  have."  No  fewer  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty-six  persons  were  wounded  in  this  terrible  tragedy, 
and  of  these  eight  succumbed.  The  Imperial  pair 
behaved  with  the  utmost  gallantry  during  and  after 
this  trying  ordeal.  The  performance  had  begun 
when  the  three  explosions  were  heard,  but  before  any 
panic  had  arisen  in  the  crowded  theatre,  the  Sove- 
reigns had  entered,  looking  pale  but  calm,  the  Em- 
press with  stains  of  blood  on  her  white  cashmere 
sortie  de  bat. 

As  their  Majesties  entered  their  box  there  was  a 
moment  of  stupor,  followed  by  an  outburst  of  en- 
thusiasm. They  remained  till  the  close,  and  drove 
home  amid  the  acclamations  of  all  Paris,  and  through 
brightly  illuminated  streets.  At  the  Tuileries  the 
day  ended  with  an  official  reception,  all  the  chief 
personages  in  the  capital  crowding  to  offer  their 
congratulations. 


in 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE    EMPRESS    AND    HER   COURT — continued 

The  Cherbourg  fetes — Crinolines  at  Cherbourg — The  tour  in 
Brittany — The  Empress  and  Louis  Veuillot — The  Italian  war — 
Eugenie's  first  Regency — Foreign  women  at  Court — Countess 
Castiglione — Princess  de  Metternich — Pepa — Childhood  of  the 
Prince  Imperial. 

THE  attempt  of  Orsini  caused  an  outburst  of 
indignation  throughout  Europe.  The  English 
newspapers,  preoccupied  with  the  Mutiny  and  the 
marriage  of  the  Princess  Royal,  while  condemning 
with  one  voice  the  horrible  crime,  gave  less  space 
than  might  have  been  expected  to  the  subject.  A 
serious  misunderstanding  arose  between  France  and 
England.  Lord  Palmerston's  Government  was  de- 
feated on  the  bill  affecting  foreign  refugees,  and  Lord 
Derby  was  called  to  power.  "  When  we  took  office/' 
said  Mr.  Disraeli  soon  afterwards,  "  war  was  not  a 
question  of  months  or  of  weeks,  but  of  days."  The 
trouble  gradually  died  away  after  the  arrival  of  the 
Duke  of  Malakoff,  the  glorious  Pelissier  of  the  Cri- 
mean War,  as  French  Ambassador  in  London. 

As  a  mark  of  restored  confidence  between  the  two 
peoples,  it  was  arranged  that  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press should  meet  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert 
at  Cherbourg  in  August,  1858.  Napoleon  showed 
on  this  occasion  an  embarrassment  which  contrasted 

112 


The  Meeting  at  Cherbourg 

noticeably  with  his  frank  cordiality  at  Windsor  in 
1855,  The  Empress,  on  the  other  hand,  was  bright 
and  merry,  confirming  herself  in  Queen  Victoria's 
good  opinion.  If  we  may  trust  Granier  de  Cas- 
sagnac's  report,  she  had  exerted  herself  to  prevent 
the  dangerous  misunderstanding  which  threatened 
war  after  Orsini's  crime.  "  Oh,  M.  de  Cassagnac," 
she  said,  "  do  not  seek  to  drive  the  Emperor  into 
a  war  with  England.  The  English  were  his  faithful 
allies  in  the  East ;  and  if  at  this  moment  their  minds, 
which  are  usually  so  just  and  fair,  are  being  carried 
away  by  a  gust  of  unreasoning  passion,  good  sense 
and  equity  will  win  the  day.  I  entreat  you  not  to 
push  the  Emperor  into  such  a  war." 

Writing  from  Broglie  on  2  August,  M.  Doudan 
gives  a  glimpse  of  the  Imperial  journey  :  "  The  sea 
is  whitening  under  the  French  and  English  ships 
which  are  going  to  meet  at  Cherbourg.  Our  parish 
priest,  who  does  not  look  in  the  least  like  a  man  of 
war,  will  be  one  of  those  who  receive  the  Emperor 
at  Evreux.  Two  or  three  hundred  priests  are  to  be 
there,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  M.  de  Bonne- 
chose.  Bernay  will  see  its  Sovereigns  passing,  but 
only  like  a  lightning  flash,  for  they  are  not  to  stop 
there.  There  will  be  a  short  wait  at  Lisieux.  .  .  . 
This  visit  of  the  Queen  of  England  has  hardly  any 
parallel  in  history.  Rarely  indeed  has  a  sovereign 
come  to  help  to  inaugurate  citadels  built  opposite  his 
coast  and  against  him." 

Conscious  of  the  best  intentions,  the  Empress  was 

noticeably  more  at  ease  than  her  husband,  who  was 

already  planning  with  M.  Cavour  an  Italian  policy 

of  which  English  statesmen  disapproved.     The  news- 

1  1x3 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

papers  of  the  time  described  the  gay  festivities 
which  accompanied  the  opening  of  the  Cherbourg 
docks  and  railway,  but  for  the  inner  history  of  these 
August  days  we  must  turn  to  Queen  Victoria's 
diary.  The  Victoria  and  Albert  arrived  on  4  August, 
escorted  by  six  battleships  and  many  smaller 
craft.  The  Peru  had  been  chartered  to  convey 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  we  read  that 
wines,  liqueurs,  fruits,  and  poultry  had  been  shipped 
in  vast  quantities  at  Southampton.  The  Emperor 
and  Empress  had  arrived  only  two  hours  before 
their  English  guests,  and  in  the  interval  the  keys  of 
Cherbourg  were  presented,  and  thirty  young  girls 
of  the  town  had  offered  to  the  Empress  baskets  of 
flowers  and  lace.  Their  Majesties  were  entertained 
at  the  Prefecture.  In  the  evening  they  paid  a 
private  visit  to  the  English  royal  yacht ;  the  Em- 
press, as  Queen  Victoria  notes,  wearing  a  lilac  and 
white  silk  dress  and  a  black  and  white  lace  bonnet. 
Our  Queen,  it  is  evident,  yielded  homage  to  Eugenie 
as  an  arbiter  of  fashion. 

"  The  Emperor  was  much  embarrassed — she  less 
so  and  most  kind.  The  Empress  asked  anxiously 
if  the  feeling  was  still  bad  against  France  in  Eng- 
land, and  if  they  still  expected  an  invasion.  At  ten 
minutes  to  ten,"  continues  the  Oueen,  "  we  went 
below  and  read,  and  nearly  finished  that  most  in- 
teresting book,  Jane  Eyre." 

The  Prince  Consort  wrote  in  his  journal :  "  The 
Emperor  looks  ill ;  he  is  out  of  humour  at  all  that  is 
said  about  him  in  England." 

Watching  the  splendid  display  of  naval  power 
in  the  harbour  of  Cherbourg,  where  nine  French 

114 


Queen  Victoria's  Diary 

men-of-war  lay  anchored,  the  Prince  felt  that  the 
time  had  come  when  Britain  should  look  more  care- 
fully to  her  naval  defences. 

On  Thursday,  5  August,  the  Queen  and  Prince 
lunched  at  the  Prefecture.  It  is  recorded  that  host 
and  hostess  were  amiable,  "  but  the  Emperor  rather 
boutonne  and  silent,  and  not  ready  to  talk.  The 
Empress  spoke  most  anxiously  of  the  state  of  affairs 
— of  her  hope  that  matters  would  go  well  ...  of  the 
harm  our  press  articles  did  when  translated  into  the 
foreign  journals,  our  powerlessness  to  prevent  it,  etc. 
We  also  talked  of  the  dreadful  attentat  itself,  of  which 
she  gave  me  an  account." 

In  the  evening  there  was  a  State  dinner  on  board 
the  Bretagne,  the  Emperor's  yacht.  "  The  Empress 
was  at  the  top  of  the  ladder,  looking  lovely.  The 
Emperor  unbent  and  spoke  in  his  usual  frank  way 
to  me  during  dinner.  But  he  was  not  in  good  spirits, 
and  seemed  sensitive  about  all  that  has  been  said  of 
him  in  England  and  elsewhere."  Official  speeches 
followed  the  dinner  ;  and  during  that  of  the  Prince, 
says  Queen  Victoria,  "  I  sat  shaking,  with  my  eyes 
clones  sur  la  table.  However,  the  speech  did  very 
well.  This  over  we  got  up  and  the  Emperor  in  the 
cabin  shook  Albert  by  the  hand,  and  we  all  talked 
of  the  terrible  emotion  we  had  undergone,  the  Em- 
peror himself  having  changed  colour,  and  the  Em- 
press having  also  been  very  nervous.  I  shook  so 
that  I  could  not  drink  my  cup  of  coffee." 

The  evening  closed  with  magnificent  fireworks. 
One  flight  of  rockets  was  said  to  have  cost  twenty- 
five  thousand  francs. 

On  6  August  the  Victoria  and  Albert  carried  the 

"5 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

royal  guests  back  to  Osborne,  after  a  tender  leave- 
taking  on  the  part  of  the  Empress. 

"  We  got  under  way  immediately — the  Emperor 
standing  the  while  on  the  poop  of  the  Bretagne, 
waving  his  hand — and  steamed  out,  preceded  by  the 
escort,  under  heavy  salutes,  leaving  the  gay  and 
never-to-be-forgotten  scene  behind  us." 

The  immense  size  of  the  royal  ladies'  crinolines 
was  much  commented  on  at  Cherbourg.  The  Em- 
press had  introduced  the  fashion  in  1855,  adapting 
the  Spanish  farthingale  of  the  seventeenth  century 
which  she  had  seen  in  portraits  by  Velasquez.  Her 
exquisite  grace  and  beauty  alone  saved  the  new 
mode  from  ridicule.  It  was  said  that  the  Home 
Minister  of  the  day  warned  the  prefects  that  to 
attack  the  crinoline  was  to  attack  the  future  Regent. 
At  Cherbourg  special  provision  had  to  be  made  on 
board  ship  for  the  inflated  skirts.  Gangways  and 
companion  ladders  were  widened,  and  the  staircase 
was  enlarged  from  the  deck  to  the  cabin  of  the 
Bretagne. 

The  dresses  of  the  moment  were  flounced  to  the 
waist,  and  the  Empress  had  her  gowns  feathered 
along  the  edge  so  as  to  soften  the  general  outline. 
"  The  ladies  from  Osborne,"  wrote  a  spectator,  "  ap- 
peared to  walk  in  portly  wine-tubs." 

From  Cherbourg,  on  8  August,  the  Bretagne 
steamed  away  towards  Brest,  escorted  by  a  naval 
squadron.  The  tour  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
in  Brittany  was  a  triumphal  progress.  The  devout 
Catholic  population  looked  on  with  joy  as  their 
Majesties  knelt  before  the  ancient  shrine  of  St. 
Anne   d'Auray,   pleading  that   the  divine  blessing 

116 


Eugenie  in  Brittany 

might  rest  on  their  beloved  land.  "  At  this  moment, 
writes  M.  de  la  Gorce,  "  the  Catholic  masses  re- 
mained firmly  faithful,  with  a  fidelity  which  at  times 
rose  even  to  enthusiasm."  The  country  priests, 
with  sacred  banners  borne  in  front  of  them,  led  the 
people  in  deputations  to  see  their  Majesties.  Ma- 
dame Carette,  who  was  a  girl  in  Brest  at  the  time  of 
the  visit,  remembered  seeing  cures  who  took  horse 
and  followed  the  Sovereigns  as  an  escort  from  town 
to  town.  The  Bishop  of  Rennes — soon  to  be  made 
an  Archbishop — compared  the  Emperor  to  Saint 
Louis,  and  reminded  his  hearers  that  the  Empress 
was  a  compatriot  of  St.  Teresa  and  St.  Dominic. 
Napoleon  gave  lavishly  to  supply  the  needs  of  the 
local  churches.  Silver  medals  were  distributed  in 
remembrance  of  his  pilgrimage. 

Pleasures  of  a  more  secular  kind  were  not  lacking, 
for  the  towns  gave  balls  in  honour  of  the  visitors. 
At  St.  Malo  a  dangerous  accident  was  narrowly 
averted,  owing  to  the  threatened  fall  of  a  huge 
gaselier  in  the  ceiling  of  the  ballroom.  General 
Fleury  warned  the  Empress  that  there  might  be 
danger  of  a  panic.  With  perfect  composure  Eu- 
genie took  her  husband's  arm,  and  bowing  to  left 
and  right  with  her  accustomed  grace,  she  walked  out 
of  the  ballroom,  followed  by  the  greater  part  of  the 
crowd.  The  few  guests  who  remained  were  re- 
quested to  leave,  and  so  a  catastrophe  was  pre- 
vented. 

Amidst  the  many  glittering  scenes  of  this  journey, 
none  lingered  so  long  in  Eugenie's  memory  as  the 
quiet  service  in  the  church  of  St.  Anne.  The 
scene  spread  before  her  was  not  unlike  that  which 

117 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

Matthew    Arnold    describes    in     "  Stanzas     from 

Carnac  "  : — 

And  o'er  the  glistering,  lonely  land 

Rise  up,  all  round,  the  Christian  spires ; 
The  church  of  Carnac,  by  the  strand, 

Catches  the  westering  sun's  last  fires. 

And  there,  across  the  watery  way, 

See  low  above  the  tide  at  flood, 
The  sickle-sweep  of  Quiberon  Bay, 

Whose  beach  once  ran  with  loyal  blood. 

And  beyond  that,  the  Atlantic  wide ! 

The  beauty  of  the  weather  enhanced  the  pleasure 
of  the  journey.  "  The  sun,"  wrote  M.  Doudan, 
"  is  a  bit  of  a  courtier.  He  always  shines  out  when 
the  Sovereigns  travel  through  the  land  in  State.  It 
was  raining  everywhere  in  Normandy  except  in 
the  harbour  of  Cherbourg,  where  the  Emperor  and 
Queen  Victoria  met  and  embraced.  I  am  more 
touched  than  surprised  by  the  affectionate  welcome 
given  to  the  Emperor  in  Brittany." 

No  one  watched  the  progress  of  this  Breton  tour 
with  keener  interest  than  the  great  Catholic  editor, 
Louis  Veuillot.  His  paper,  the  Univers,  which  was 
taken  in  by  the  country  clergy,  and  exercised  an  in- 
calculable influence  in  religious  affairs,  had  hailed 
in  Louis  Napoleon  "  un  esprit  vraiment  grand, 
vraiment  liberal,  vraiment  royal,"  and  had  declared 
that  Catholics  owed  the  Emperor  not  only  their 
support,  but  their  gratitude,  and  that  his  govern- 
ment was  for  them  a  gift  of  Providence.  Louis 
Veuillot  had  his  first  interview  with  Napoleon  III 
on  19  February,  1858,  a  month  after  Orsini's  crime. 
They  talked  cordially  together,  and  the  Sovereign 

118 


Louis  Veuillot 

begged  the  journalist  to  express  his  views  frankly. 
As  they  were  chatting,  Eugenie  came  in.  She  had 
heard  that  this  remarkable  man  was  in  the  palace, 
and  desired  to  make  his  acquaintance.  In  the  ac- 
count he  wrote  of  the  meeting,  Veuillot  savs  that 
the  Empress  turned  the  talk  to  literarv  subjects. 
Napoleon  asked  how  long  he  had  been  writing  for 
the  papers.  "  I  can  hardly  remember  when  I  be- 
gan," said  Veuillot,  "  but  I  have  had  the  good 
fortune  to  write  for  the  cause  I  loved,  and  so  I  have 
never  felt  weary."  "  Yours  is  most  honourable 
work,"  said  the  Emperor.  "  At  least,  sir,  I  have 
tried  to  do  it  honourably." 

Veuillot  wrote  with  profound  sympathy  of  the 
visit  of  their  Majesties  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Anne 
d'Auray.  "  This  journey,"  he  said,  "  is  a  religious 
event.  .  .  .  The  Emperor  has  performed  an  act  and 
has  spoken  words  which  are  worth  more  than  a 
victory." 

'  It  is  evident,"  he  wrote,  after  meeting  the  Im- 
perial pair,  "  that  I  feel  myself  a  little  under  the 
charm." 

At  that  moment  a  bond  of  close  sympathy  bound 
the  clergy  to  the  throne.  The  Emperor's  Italian 
policy  soon  alienated  Veuillot,  but  in  1869 — after 
ten  stormy  and  eventful  years — he  remembered  that 
first  meeting  with  the  young  Empress.  A  report 
appeared  in  the  papers  that  the  Prince  Imperial  had 
declared  that  if  he  came  to  the  throne  he  would  re- 
quire every  subject  to  perform  his  religious  duties. 
A  section  of  the  press  commented  so  bitterly  on 
the  rumour  that  an  official  denial  was  published. 
Veuillot  defended  the  little  Prince,  and  he  further 

119 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

said  that  if  the  Emperor's  declining  health  should 
necessitate  a  regency  in  the  near  future,  the  Empress, 
and  not  Prince  Napoleon,  would  be  the  natural 
Regent.  He  was  even  malicious  enough  to  suggest 
that  Eugenie  should  arrest  her  enemy  ;  and  if  she 
set  him  free  and  desired  to  grace  him,  a  safe  employ- 
ment for  Prince  Napoleon  might  be  the  conquest  of 
the  Crimea.  This  was  an  allusion  to  the  Prince's 
early  and  inglorious  return  from  the  Crimean  War. 

A  considerable  section  of  French  opinion  dis- 
approved of  the  flattering  speeches  made  to  the 
Sovereigns  by  the  Breton  clergy.  The  Comte  de 
Falloux,  in  his  memoirs,  complains  of  the  "  ridiculous 
toadyism  of  the  Bishop  of  Rennes"  (Mgr.  Brossais- 
Saint-Marc),  and  asks  why  St.  Louis  and  Jeanne 
de  Montfort  could  not  have  been  allowed  to  rest 
peacefully  in  their  graves.  "Is  it  the  business  of 
the  clergy  to  exalt  the  beauty  of  the  Empress  to 
the  height  of  an  Imperial  institution  ?  "  Catholics 
whose  hearts  were  with  the  exiled  Princes  naturally 
resented  all  popular  demonstrations  in  favour  of  the 
"  usurpers." 

At  the  end  of  1858  the  Second  Empire  was  at  the 

height  of  glory.     The  ship  of  State  glided  smoothly 

over  placid  seas.     But,  unknown  to  her  officers,  she 

was  drawing  near  to — 

Dangerous  rocks, 

Which,  touching  but  the  gentle  vessel's  side, 

Would  scatter  all  her  spices  on  the  stream. 

Historians  have  traced  in  Napoleon's  Italian 
policy,  with  its  endless  shiftings  and  vacillations, 
the  beginning  of  his  downfall  as  a  ruler.  It  alienated 
the  Church,  and  sowed  the  seeds  of  disaffection 
among  the  masses. 

120 


The  War  in  Italy 

The  first  hint  of  war  came  on  New  Year's  Day, 
1859,  when  Napoleon  spoke  a  significant  sentence 
to  the  Austrian  Ambassador  at  the  diplomatic  re- 
ception in  the  Tuileries.  "  I  am  sorry,"  he  said, 
"  that  our  relations  with  your  Government  are  not 
as  friendly  as  they  used  to  be.  Will  you  tell  the  Em- 
peror that  my  personal  feelings  towards  him  are  un- 
changed ?  "  The  marriage  of  Prince  Napoleon  with 
Princess  Clotilde  early  in  the  year  was  understood 
to  foreshadow  an  alliance  with  Victor  Emmanuel 
against  Austria.  Count  Walewski  laboured  hard 
for  peace,  England  was  active  in  mediation,  and  a 
European  Congress  was  projected.  The  men  who 
stood  nearest  to  the  Emperor  did  not  understand 
his  real  designs.  "  The  mind  of  this  imposing  and 
mysterious  potentate,"  writes  Mr.  John  Morley, 
'  was  the  shadowy  home  of  vagrant  ideals  and 
fugitive  chimeras.  It  was  said  by  one  who  knew 
him  well,  Scratch  the  Emperor,  and  you  will  find 
the  political  refugee.  You  will  find,  that  is  to  say, 
the  man  of  fluctuating  hope  without  firm  calculation 
of  fact,  the  man  of  half-shaped  ends  with  no  sure 
eye  to  means."  The  strong  intellect  of  Cavour 
hypnotized  Napoleon  and  led  him  by  slow  stages 
into  a  costly  war.  The  fluctuations  of  opinion  are 
clearly  mirrored  in  Merimee's  letters  to  Panizzi. 
Writing  on  12  March,  this  habitue  of  the  Court 
says,  '  As  for  me,  I  know  nothing.  We  have 
been  peaceably  disposed  for  twenty-four  hours, 
which  renders  it  extremely  probable  that  we  shall 
be  warlike  to-morrow.  .  .  .  My  belief  is  that  the 
Emperor  wants  war,  but  is  in  no  hurry  to  de- 
clare it." 


121 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

Lent  was  ushered  in  by  a  carnival  of  unusual 
brilliancy.  It  seemed  as  if  the  Sovereigns  were 
exerting  themselves  to  reassure  public  opinion. 
On  Maundy  Thursday  Rossini's  Stab  at  Mater  was 
sung  in  the  chapel  of  the  Tuileries,  amid  a  solemn 
sadness.  At  the  reception  which  followed,  French 
statesmen  were  grave  and  preoccupied.  Officers 
of  high  rank  wore  an  air  of  haughty  defiance  ;  their 
wives  were  melancholy  and  tearful.  On  that  day 
the  fact  had  become  known  that  Austria  refused 
to  join  the  Congress,  and  had  given  Piedmont  a 
three  days'  ultimatum.  Seldom  had  a  more  anxious 
Holy  Week  been  known  in  Paris.  On  Easter  Day, 
says  M.  de  la  Gorce,  congregations  were  larger  than 
usual  at  the  Church  services,  "  but  while  the  priests 
intoned  the  joyous  Alleluia  of  Easter  more  than  one 
sob  might  be  heard.  It  came  from  mothers  who 
in  passionate  prayer  were  pleading  with  God  to 
spare  their  sons,  and  to  save  our  soldiers  from  death.' 
The  Empress,  it  was  said,  had  gone  to  pray  in  five 
churches.  It  was  a  crisis  in  her  affections,  for  all 
agreed  that  as  Napoleon  had  not  taken  a  personal 
part  in  the  Crimean  War,  he  must  lead  his  troops  to 
victory  on  the  plains  of  Piedmont. 

The  shrewd  Merimee  notes  (8  April)  that  "  this 
country  is  as  averse  as  possible  from  war,"  and  that 
"  France — in  the  event  of  a  war — may  possibly  be 
brought  face  to  face  with  a  revolution."  But  three 
weeks  later  (29  April)  he  strikes  the  martial  note: 
"  The  people  accept  the  war  gleefully,  and  are  in 
the  highest  spirits  and  brimful  of  confidence.  As 
for  the  soldiers,  they  might  be  going  to  a  ball.  The 
day  before  yesterday  they  wrote  in  chalk  on  the 


122 


Eugenie  Regent 

carriages,  '  Excursion  trains  for  Italy  and  Vienna.' 
As  they  march  along  the  streets  on  their  way  to  the 
stations  they  are  covered  with  flowers,  deluged  with 
wine,  embraced,  and  enjoined  to  kill  as  many 
Austrians  as  they  can." 

A  graphic  description  of  the  excitement  which 
preceded  the  Italian  war  is  given  by  Theophile 
Dufour  in  a  letter  to  Edgar  Quinet.  Writing  from 
Saint-Quentin  on  27  April,  1859,  he  says,  "  Here 
we  are  still  all  soldiers.  The  sight  of  the  troops 
mustering  and  starting,  the  glittering  weapons,  the 
reviews,  the  agitation,  the  danger — all  this  excite- 
ment goes  to  our  heads.  Young  and  old,  manu- 
facturers, merchants,  working  men  especially,  we 
are  all  intoxicated.  Yesterday  the  despotism  was 
hateful,  to-day  we  don't  object  to  it  so  much."  In 
Paris,  Dufour  learns,  "  all  heads  were  uncovered 
in  silence  as  the  soldiers  started.  They  alone  cried, 
'  Vive  la  France ! '  '  Vivent  les  Parisiens ! '  Nothing 
more.  I  am  told  that  the  scene  was  deeply  touch- 
ing. 

"  Our  poor  Empress,"  says  Merimee,  "  has  her 
eyes  swollen  as  large  as  eggs,  but  she  appears  full  of 
resolution  and  devotion.  She  bids  a  tearful  adieu 
to  each  regiment  as  it  leaves,  and  the  men  cheer  her 
to  the  echo." 

On  10  May,  1859,  Napoleon  set  out  for  the  war, 
leaving  his  consort  behind  as  Regent.  After  Orsini's 
crime  a  Regency  Law  had  been  carried,  appointing 
her  ruler  in  France  during  the  absence  of  the  Em- 
peror, or,  in  the  event  of  his  death,  while  her  son 
was  a  minor.  She  was  precluded  from  marrying 
again  as  Regent  ;    and  if  her  death  occurred  before 

123 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

that  of  her  husband,  the  next  Bonaparte  prince  was 
to  take  up  the  reigns  of  office.  The  scene  at  Na- 
poleon's departure  was  perhaps  the  most  enthusiastic 
witnessed  in  Paris  during  the  whole  course  of  the 
Empire.  The  population  of  the  Faubourg  St. 
Antoine  gave  him  an  enthusiastic  send-off.  Chaplets 
and  medals  of  Notre  Dame  des  Victoires  were  flung 
into  his  carriage.  These  medals  were  collected  by 
the  pious  care  of  the  Empress.  She  and  Princess 
Clotilde  accompanied  their  husbands  as  far  as  Mon- 
tereau.  The  hour  of  parting  was  softened  by  the 
memory  of  the  farewell  mass  in  the  chapel  of  the 
Tuileries,  and  perhaps  still  more  by  the  knowledge 
of  the  boundless  loyalty  of  Paris.  A  working  man 
had  been  heard  to  say,  "  Don't  worry  ;  we'll  look 
after  the  Empress  and  your  boy  till  you  come  back." 

The  Empress  returned  to  Saint  Cloud,  and  patiently 
took  up  her  task  as  Regent.  It  may  be  true  that 
Napoleon,  even  at  the  seat  of  war,  kept  the  threads 
of  government  carefully  in  his  own  hands,  but  there 
was  plenty  to  be  done  at  home,  and  Eugenie  showed 
herself  fully  equal  to  her  great  responsibility.  In 
her  speech  of  28  May  she  used  the  language  of  regal 
dignity  :  "  However  difficult  my  task  may  be,  I 
feel  in  my  loyal  French  heart  that  I  shall  be  able  to 
carry  it  through.  I  am  encouraged,  gentlemen, 
by  your  faithful  co-operation,  and  by  the  support  of 
the  nation,  who,  during  the  absence  of  their  self- 
elected  ruler,  are  not  likely  to  offend  against  a  woman 
and  a  child." 

The  Empress  lived  very  quietly  and  simply  during 
her  husband's  absence.  She  presided  each  week 
over  three  Councils  of  State,  two  of  which  were  held 

124 


The  Victory  of  Solferino 

at  the  Tuileries.  To  her  active,  energetic  nature 
the  toils  of  government  came  as  a  welcome  respite 
from  pleasure.  The  Regent  even  remarked  that 
work  was  so  pleasant  that  she  should  miss  it  after 
peace  was  made.  In  the  afternoon,  gathering  her 
ladies  round  the  tea-table,  she  set  the  example  of 
lint-making.  On  4  June  the  guns  of  the  Invalides 
sounded  for  the  victory  of  Magenta  ;  Paris  was  il- 
luminated, and  Eugenie  went  to  Notre  Dame  for  the 
Te  Deum. 

The  news  of  Solferino  arrived  at  Saint  Cloud  in  the 
early  dawn  of  a  summer  morning.  The  Emperor 
told  the  tidings  in  a  laconic  telegram  :  "  Grande 
bataille,  grande  victoire."  Eugenie  could  not  rest 
in  bed  after  such  a  glorious  message.  She  got  up, 
dressed,  and  went  down  to  the  garden,  where  she 
shared  the  intelligence  with  the  sentinels  and  soldiers 
of  the  guard.  Again  the  illuminations,  again  the 
solemn  thanksgiving  at  Notre  Dame.  The  cavalry 
of  the  National  Guard  presented  the  Empress  with 
a  golden  wreath  of  laurel  leaves.  The  little  Prince 
Imperial  was  taken  to  church  for  the  first  time  on 
this  occasion.  "  You  must  be  very  good,  Louis," 
said  mamma.  To  which  the  three-year-old  replied, 
"  I  will  do  what  the  men  do,  and  I  will  pray  like  the 
ladies."  The  Empress's  carriage  was  smothered 
in  flowers  as  she  drove  to  the  cathedral. 

Deep  was  the  disappointment  in  Paris  when  it  was 
known  that  Napoleon  had  resolved  to  sign  an  in- 
conclusive peace.  The  truth  is,  that  to  his  kind  heart 
the  sight  of  slaughtered  multitudes  was  indescribably 
painful.     He  had  none  of  the  ruthless  indifference 

125 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

to  scenes  of  death  and  agony  which  marks  the 
great  conqueror,  "  The  sight  of  the  battlefields/' 
writes  Merimee  on  15  July,  "  especially  that  of 
Solferino,  made  so  painful  an  impression  on  him 
that  he  came  to  look  upon  the  idea  of  prolonging 
the  war  as  a  species  of  crime.  Those  who  see  most 
of  him  believe  that  this  consideration  is  by  no  means 
the  least  weighty." 

Marshal  Canrobert  says  there  were  times  when 
every  other  faculty  seemed  to  leave  him  save  that 
of  mourning  over  the  fate  of  the  victims  of  the  war, 
whom  he  saw  lying  in  harvest-heaps  upon  the  field 
of  battle. 

On  11  July,  1859,  the  French  and  Austrian  Em- 
perors and  King  Victor  Emmanuel  signed  the  pre- 
liminaries of  the  Peace  of  Villafranca,  by  which 
Lombardy  was  united  to  the  Piedmontese  kingdom. 
It  is  said  that  when  Victor  Emmanuel  took  leave 
at  Turin  station  of  the  ally  whose  departure  seemed 
to  him  not  far  removed  from  a  desertion,  he  turned 
to  his  officers  and  said,  "  At  last  he  is  gone."  One 
thing  had  been  made  evident  by  this  short  and  in- 
conclusive war.  Napoleon  had  no  military  talent. 
He  exposed  himself  manfully  in  battle,  but  had 
not  the  least  grasp  of  strategy.  How  would  he  act 
if  France  were  one  day  to  find  herself  involved  in 
a  struggle  for  national  existence  ?  That  was  the 
question  which  politicians  and  soldiers  asked  them- 
selves as  they  listened  to  his  laborious  explanations 
of  the  peace.  "  Europe,"  he  said,  "  was  so  unjust 
to  me  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  that  I  was  glad 
to  conclude  peace  as  soon  as  honour  and  the  in- 
terests of  my  country  were  satisfied." 

126 


The  Empress  in  Politics 

There  had  been  20,000  French  casualties  in  the 
brief  war,  and  the  number  of  deaths  was  5,500.  To 
the  joy  of  the  whole  nation  it  was  announced  that 
a  policy  of  strict  economy  would  be  observed  for 
the  future.  The  French  hoped  against  hope  that 
Napoleon  would  at  last  begin  to  obey  the  maxim 
with  which  his  reign  had  opened  :  "  L' Empire, 
c'est  la  paix  !  " 

French  writers  tell  us  that  the  Regencies  of  1859 
and  1865  helped  to  strengthen  the  political  am- 
bition of  the  Empress.  The  ministers  learned  the 
habit  of  seeking  her  out,  and  giving  her  the  latest 
information. 

"  On  their  part,"  says  M.  Darimon,  "  this  was  a 
mere  act  of  courtesy,  but  she  made  good  use  for  her 
own  advantage  of  the  facts  entrusted  to  her,  and 
the  Emperor  had  often  to  fight  against  the  pre- 
judices and  obstinate  opinions  of  his  consort. 
From  the  year  1865  onwards  there  was  an  Empress's 
Party  at  the  Tuileries."  The  story  is  told  by  some 
writers  that  Eugenie,  finding  herself  excluded  on 
one  occasion  from  the  Council  by  desire  of  her  hus- 
band, pushed  aside  the  bayonet  of  the  soldier  who 
guarded  the  door,  and  rushing  in,  knocked  off  the 
Emperor's  hat  as  he  sat  among  his  ministers. 
Ridiculous  legends  of  this  kind  are  worth  quoting 
only  as  a  proof  of  the  growing  belief  of  the  masses 
in  Eugenie's  political  influence. 

Famous  artists  have  represented  the  Empress 
Eugenie  as  surrounded  by  a  bevy  of  beautiful 
women.  Her  closest  personal  friend  was  her  young 
cousin,  Princess  Anna  Murat,  Duchess  of  Mouchy. 

127 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

It  was  to  this  beloved  companion  that  the  Empress 
gave  the  famous  clover  ornament,  in  emeralds  and 
diamonds,  which  Napoleon  had  presented  to  her 
before  their  engagement,  and  which  she  wore  for 
many  years  as  a  talisman.  The  jewel  was  laid  aside 
after  her  widowhood,  but  on  the  day  when  the  Prince 
Imperial  left  for  Zululand  his  mother  put  it  on  once 
more,  and  wore  it  till  his  death.  To  the  Duchess  of 
Mouchy,  in  handing  over  the  treasure,  Eugenie  said  : 
"  That  is  my  dearest  relic.  I  do  not  want  it  to  be 
thrown  aside.  Wear  it  every  evening  in  memory  of 
us.  May  it  be  to  you  a  pledge  of  happiness  and  of 
tender  friendship." 

The  Mistress  of  the  Robes  was  Princess  d'Essling, 
a  proud  and  stately  gentlewoman,  who  fulfilled  her 
duties  with  the  precision  of  a  Spanish  duefia.  On 
the  day  when  Paris  was  seething  with  the  Revolution 
which  followed  the  news  of  Sedan,  Princess  d'Essling 
was  calmly  driving  to  the  Tuileries  to  perform  her 
accustomed  service,  when  she  was  turned  back  by 
the  mob. 

The  most  admired  beauty  at  Court  during  the 
late  fifties  was  the  Countess  Castiglione,  of  whom 
singular  tales  were  told.  Her  statuesque  beauty 
dazzled  the  Emperor  and  aroused  the  jealousy  of 
his  beautiful  consort.  The  wife  of  an  equerry  of 
Victor  Emmanuel,  the  Countess  was  sometimes 
suspected  of  being  a  spy  of  Cavour.  In  society  she 
attracted  notice  by  the  daring  audacity  of  her  cos- 
tumes. Memoir- writers  have  described  the  ex- 
traordinary scene  at  a  Tuileries  ball,  when  the 
Countess  appeared  as  a  Roman  lady  of  the  declining 
Empire.     Men  and  women  jumped  on  chairs,  tables, 

128 


Countess  Castiglione 

and  benches  to  see  her,  and  the  general  opinion  was 
that  the  immodesty  of  her  attire  passed  the  bounds 
of  licence.  In  manner  she  was  cold,  haughty,  and 
reserved,  unpopular  with  most  women.  She  re- 
called, says  Madame  Carette,  those  heathen  goddesses 
who  loved  to  be  appeased  with  human  sacrifices. 
The  kind-hearted  Countess  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie, 
when  arranging  a  series  of  tableaux  on  behalf  of  the 
poor,  begged  the  help  of  Madame  de  Castiglione. 
The  proud  beauty  consented  to  take  part  in  a  tab- 
leau, on  condition  that  she  might  choose  her  own 
character  and  dress.  She  appeared  as  a  hermit, 
wrapped  in  a  coarse  brown  robe,  with  hood  drawn 
over  her  face,  seated  at  the  entrance  to  a  grotto  ! 

The  Countess  Castiglione  disappeared  from  society 
before  the  close  of  the  Empire.  Glimpses  of  her 
last  years  are  given  in  the  Souvenirs  of  Marshal 
Canrobert.  As  she  grew  old,  she  shut  herself  up 
like  a  recluse,  in  a  flat  in  the  Place  Vendome.  All 
the  mirrors  were  covered,  that  she  might  never 
have  before  her  eyes  the  spectacle  of  her  waning 
beauty.  She  went  out  at  nightfall,  wearing  a  thick 
veil,  and  received  visitors  by  the  light  of  a  single 
taper.  Servants  might  not  wait  on  her  at  table. 
She  entered  the  dining-room,  ate  her  solitary  meal, 
and  returned  unseen  to  her  apartment.  It  was  a 
melancholy  end  for  one  who  had  blazed  as  a  star  at 
the  gayest  Court  of  Europe. 

M.  Frederic  Loliee,  in  his  recently  published  book, 
Les  Femmes  du  Second  Empire,  gives  a  pathetic 
picture  of  the  Countess  Castiglione's  closing  days. 
The  once  proud  beauty  read  with  eager  attention 
all  memoirs  of  the  period  in  which  her  name  was 

K  129 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

mentioned.  There  still  exists  a  copy  of  Madame 
Carette's  volume  with  annotations  from  her  hand. 
Madame  Carette  had  written,  "  II  y  avait,  sur  ce 
beau  visage,  une  expression  de  hauteur,  de  durete." 
The  Countess  changed  the  words  "  hauteur,  durete  " 
into  "  fierte,  douceur."  Madame  Carette  wrote 
that  in  her  character  "  Le  charme  n'existait  pas." 
The  marginal  commentary  is  in  one  word, "  Erreur !  " 
The  Countess  died  in  1899,  having  survived  by  nearly 
thirty  years  the  fall  of  the  Second  Empire.  M. 
Loliee  says  that  on  the  rough  draft  of  her  will  she 
wrote  with  a  red  pencil  the  words,  "  Pas  d'heYitiers. 
Sans  aucune  famille,  ni  en  France  ni  en  Italic" 
Her  husband  and  son  had  long  passed  from  earth. 
"  She  wished,"  says  M.  Loliee,  "  to  be  forgotten 
absolutely  and  finally.  She  had  left  the  strictest 
instructions  that  at  her  death  there  should  be  neither 
procession,  nor  flowers,  nor  letters  and  articles  in  the 
newspapers,  not  one  word  which  should  reveal  the 
fact  that  she  had  passed  into  eternal  silence.  She 
had  vanished  thirty  years  ago,  and  after  death  she 
wished  to  retain  this  nothingness."  Writing  to  her 
old  friend,  M.  Estancelin,  in  November,  1899,  the 
Countess  said,  "  I  want  a  solitary  burial.  No 
flowers,  no  church  service,  no  mourners.  Understand 
my  wishes  clearly.  I  advise  you  to  tell  no  one  in 
Paris  until  after  the  return." 

Our  thoughts  recall  inevitably  another  such  will 
in  literature — that  of  Michael  Henchard,  the  Mayor 
of  Casterbridge.  The  instructions  he  left  were 
almost  identical  with  those  of  the  Countess  Cas- 
tiglione. 

"  The  place  of  her  burial,"  says  M.  Loliee,  "was  kept 

130 


The  Princess  de  Metternich 

secret.  No  sumptuous  cenotaph  was  erected  to 
her  memory.  A  simple  stone  of  granite  marks  her 
last  resting-place,  which  is  now  quite  neglected.  I 
went  to  see  it  ;  it  was  hidden  in  the  still  wooded 
part  of  Pere-Lachaise.  There  were  no  ornaments, 
no  flowers.  A  poor  plain  holly  wreath  adorned  its 
cold  nakedness." 

No  great  lady  was  more  influential  than  Madame 
de  Metternich,  wife  of  the  Austrian  Ambassador, 
who  came  to  Paris  after  the  Peace  of  Villafranca. 
She  was  a  woman  of  daring,  eccentric,  and  original 
character,  irreproachable  in  her  private  life,  an  ex- 
cellent wife  and  mother,  but  with  a  disposition  to 
lead  others  into  mischief.  Her  father,  the  Hun- 
garian Count  Chandor,  had  been  famous  in  his 
time  as  a  reckless  huntsman,  and  was  said  to  have 
broken  more  bones  in  riding-accidents  than  any 
cavalier  in  Europe.  The  Princess's  drawing-room  was 
adorned  with  water-colours  depicting  his  exploits. 
When  the  young  Ambassadress  came  to  Paris  from 
Vienna,  she  said,  "  Every  one  here  thinks  me  ugly, 
but  they  will  soon  find  that  I  am  worse  than  pretty." 
The  gay  and  free-spoken  Princess — who  was  said  to 
smoke  long  cigars  in  the  evening  with  her  husband's 
friends — became  a  personage  in  the  French  capital, 
notwithstanding  her  lack  of  beauty,  and  acquired 
considerable  power  with  the  Empress.  "  How  I 
should  like  to  be  her  Princesse  de  Lamballe ! '  she 
exclaimed  once  to  Madame  Carette,  and  the  reply 
was  that  many  Frenchwomen  would  dispute  the 
honour. 

The  Princess  affected  a  certain  bluntness  of  speech 
and  audacity  of  manner.     Many  of  her  sayings  be- 

131 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

came  the  talk  of  the  town.  Once  when  lunching  at 
the  house  of  a  wealthy  Jewish  banker,  she  observed 
that  a  different  wine  was  poured  out  for  the  master 
of  the  house  from  that  which  the  guests  were  offered. 
"  Is  that  a  very  dear  wine,  baron  ?  "  she  asked, 
"  since  only  you  may  drink  it  ?  Let  me  have  a  glass 
too,  please,  and  then  we'll  see  if  your  taste  is  good." 

Princess  de  Metternich  warmly  admired  Wagner, 
and  on  the  night  when  Tannhauser  met  with  an  un- 
lucky reception  in  the  Paris  Opera  House  she  came 
to  the  front  of  her  box,  and,  leaning  over,  clapped 
her  hands  loudly  as  if  in  defiance  of  the  audience. 
"  I  have  saved  the  honour  of  Wagner,"  she  declared 
afterwards. 

With  all  her  wildness  the  Princess  de  Metternich 
never  forgot  that  she  was  a  high-born  patrician 
dame.  A  cruel  saying  of  hers  was  repeated  at 
Court.  "  My  Empress,"  she  remarked  to  one  of 
the  ladies  of  honour,  "  is  a  real  Empress  ;  yours  is 
only  Mademoiselle  de  Montijo."  Such  sneers  and 
innuendoes  were  among  the  minor  mortifications  of 
the  Empress's  life.  Even  Princess  Clotilde,  daugh- 
ter of  Victor  Emmanuel,  when  she  came  first  to 
the  Court  of  the  Tuileries  as  the  wife  of  Prince 
Napoleon,  did  not,  it  is  said,  respond  pleasantly  to 
the  kindness  of  the  Sovereign.  "  You  will  soon  be 
accustomed  to  my  Court,  dear,"  said  the  hostess. 
"  Yes,"  answered  the  young  girl,  "  for  you  see  I 
have  been  accustomed  all  my  life  to  my  father's." 

Princess  de  Metternich  was  known  in  Court  circles 
as  "  the  Ambassadress  of  pleasures."  At  Com- 
piegne,  during  the  autumn  parties,  she  was  the 
merriest  oi  romps.     With  true  womanly  kindness, 

132 


The  Princess  at  Compiegne 

she  sought  to  cheer  her  hostess  on  the  occasions 
when  Napoleon's  wandering  fancies  had  carried 
him  after  some  youthful  beauty.  Princess  de  Metter- 
nich  was  always  full  of  life,  spirit,  and  ideas.  On 
rainy  afternoons  when  the  ladies  of  the  household 
sat  stupidly  yawning,  she  was  never  at  a  loss  to 
devise  some  entertainment.  It  might  be  babyish, 
silly — what  did  that  matter,  if  the  ball  could  be 
kept  rolling  ?  Thus,  on  one  very  dull  day,  she  put 
a  ring  in  a  bowl  of  flour,  and  challenged  the  ladies 
to  pick  it  out  with  their  lips  without  whitening  their 
noses !  At  the  Compiegne  theatricals,  as  photo- 
graphs attest,  she  appeared  as  a  black  demon,  with 
skirt  cut  short  at  the  knee,  and  horns  rising  from  her 
closely  dressed  hair.  On  another  occasion  she  was 
dressed  as  a  Parisian  cabman,  in  "  Les  Commentaires 
de  Cesar." 

That  touch  of  wildness  which  surprised  and  de- 
lighted contemporaries,  was  an  inheritance  from  her 
father.  "  Le  sang  paternel,"  she  said,  "  parle  tres 
haut  chez  moi."  Many  a  Hungarian  gentleman  felt 
at  the  death  of  Count  Chandor  that  the  joy  was  gone 
from  the  hunting-field. 

Ein  gar  herzlicber  Gesell ! 
Heir's  ist  ewig  Schade  ! 
Keiner  blies  das  Horn  so  hell 
Wie  mein  Kamerade ! 

The  Princess  had  a  very  genuine  admiration  for 
her  husband's  father,  the  great  Austrian  statesman, 
and  used  to  tell  stories  about  him  in  Paris.  Metter- 
nich,  according  to  her  narrative,  was  once  asked  on 
what  occasion  he  had  felt  most  keenly  the  prestige 
and  sovereignty  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon  I.     This 

«33 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

impression,  he  used  to  say,  came  to  him  most  vividly 
at  Compiegne,  one  morning  when  Napoleon  and  his 
guests,  after  a  drive  in  the  forest,  were  kept  waiting 
for  lunch.  The  Emperor  stood  chatting,  with  his 
back  to  the  fireplace  as  usual.  A  number  of  notable 
personages  and  members  of  his  family  were  in  the 
room.  Napoleon,  beginning  to  feel  hungry,  turned 
to  Murat.  "  King  of  Naples,  go  and  see  why  lunch 
is  not  ready  !  "  Murat  left  the  room,  and  returned 
presently  with  the  news  that  the  meal  would  be 
ready  in  a  few  minutes.  "  There  has  been  a  slight 
accident."  Napoleon  resumed  the  conversation. 
But  the  time  of  waiting  lengthened  out,  and  he  again 
grew  impatient.  "  King  of  Holland,"  he  exclaimed, 
"  go  and  ask  if  we  are  to  have  no  lunch  at  all 
to-day !  "  Prince  Metternich,  accustomed  as  he 
was  to  stiff  Austrian  etiquette,  was  not  unnaturally 
impressed  by  the  might  of  an  Emperor  who  sent 
kings  as  messengers  to  the  kitchen.  Princess  Met- 
ternich was  the  perfect  type  of  a  Madame  Sans- 
Gene.  In  girlhood  the  spoiled  child  of  the  Viennese 
Court,  she  was  only  twenty-two  when  as  the  bride 
of  Richard  de  Metternich  she  began  her  dazzling 
career  in  Paris.  Her  leadership  of  fashion  was  in 
no  way  hindered  by  her  lack  of  beauty,  and  it  was 
through  her  influence  that  Worth  became  the  auto- 
crat of  the  world  of  dress.  M.  Loliee  reminds  us 
that  when  the  war  of  1870  broke  out,  Worth  had 
commenced  a  lawsuit  against  Madame  de  Metter- 
nich for  a  bill  of  75,000  francs.  Like  many  sove- 
reigns of  the  realms  of  chiffon,  Pauline  Metternich 
was  a  woman  of  keen  business  instincts.  It  has 
been  her  lot  to  survive  by  many  years  the  Court  in 

134 


The  Countess  Walewska 

which  she  sparkled  so  brilliantly.  Her  middle  age 
and  declining  years  have  been  spent  in  Austria, 
and  a  portrait  taken  recently  shows  her  figure  still 
erect  and  her  expressive  eyes  undimmed.  She 
has  been  called  "  the  Lady  of  Vienna/'  and  her 
popularity  with  the  people  is  said  to  have  been  viewed 
with  jealousy  by  the  late  Empress  Elizabeth. 

Another  lady  of  the  Second  Empire  whose  life 
has  been  prolonged  far  beyond  its  limits  is  Anne 
Marie  de  Ricci,  Countess  Walewska.  Her  husband, 
a  son  of  the  great  Emperor,  died  in  1867,  leaving 
but  a  small  fortune.  After  the  war  President 
Grevy  assigned  to  Madame  Walewska  a  pension  of 
15,000  francs,  in  consideration  of  the  services  which 
her  husband  had  rendered  to  the  State  as  Ambassa- 
dor and  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  M.  Loliee, 
who  visited  the  Countess  in  the  modest  home  of  her 
later  years,  tells  us  that  she  spoke  with  pride  of 
Walewski's  disinterested  conduct  as  compared  with 
that  of  Morny,  for  example,  who  left  a  fortune  of 
twelve  million  francs  to  his  children.  Madame 
Walewska,  though  much  admired  by  the  Em- 
peror, who  presented  her  on  one  occasion  with  a 
magnificent  pearl  necklace,  was  none  the  less  a 
close  personal  friend  of  Eugenie.  At  a  time  when 
slanderous  tongues  were  speaking  loudly,  she  sought 
out  the  Empress,  and  begged  that  while  these  malig- 
nant rumours  were  current  she  might  no  longer 
be  invited  to  the  private  parties  at  the  Tuileries. 
The  Empress,  deeply  touched,  clasped  her  friend  in 
her  arms,  and  treated  her  for  the  future  with  re- 
doubled affection.  She  had  a  fancy  for  appearing 
in  dresses  matching  those  of  the  Countess,  and  when 

'35 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

Princess  Metternich  asked  whether  she  had  kept 
any  locks  of  the  Prince  Imperial's  hair,  replied, 
"  I  gave  them  to  Madame  Walewska." 

Tender  memories  of  the  Empress  dwell  in  the 
minds  of  her  surviving  friends.  All  the  little 
rancours  and  jealousies  of  the  past  have  long  been 
swept  away.  Princess  de  Metternich  and  Madame 
Walewska  must  often  have  thought  of  her  in  the 
spirit  of  Victor  Hugo's  lines  in  the  "  Chants  du 
Crepuscule"  : — 

O  madame !  pourquoi  ce  chagrin  qui  vous  suit  ? 

Pourquoi  pleurer  encore, 
Vous,  femme  au  cceur  charmant,  sombre  comme  la  nuit, 

Douce  comme  l'aurore  ? 

Qu'importe  que  la  vie  inegale  ici-bas 

Pour  l'homme  et  pour  la  femme, 
Se  deYobe  et  soit  prete  a  rompre  sous  vos  pas, 

N'avez-vous  pas  votre  ame  ? 

Soyez  comme  l'oiseau  pose  pour  un  instant 

Sur  des  rameaux  trop  freles, 
Qui  sent  plier  la  branche  et  qui  chante  pourtant, 

Sachant  qu'il  a  des  ailes ! 

The  names  of  many  other  ladies  of  the  Court  will 
occur  to  every  student  of  the  period.  I  must  con- 
tent myself  with  mentioning  four  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished beauties — the  Marquise  de  Gallifet,  the 
Comtesse  de  Pourtales,  the  Duchesse  dTsly,  and  the 
Comtesse  Fleury. 

Writing  at  the  moment  of  the  Emperor's  marriage, 
Viel  Castel  had  said  :  "  This  Court  is  badly  in  want 
of  honest  people.  The  Emperor  is  shamefully  robbed. 
His  trusted  agents  make  him  pay  for  everything  at 
a  third  above  the  proper  value.     His  house  is  a  den 

136 


Pepa 

of  thieves."  Although  the  Empress  knew  the 
value  of  money,  and  looked  carefully  to  her  accounts, 
there  was  a  clever  little  Spanish  woman  near  her 
who  filled  her  pockets  at  their  Majesties'  expense. 
This  was  Madame  Pollet,  better  known  as  Pepa, 
daughter  of  the  Carlist  general,  Narro  de  Ortega. 
She  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  Countess  of  Mon- 
ti] o  before  Eugenie's  marriage,  and  accompanied 
her  young  mistress  to  the  Tuileries.  Her  devotion 
could  not  be  questioned,  nor  her  fiery  jealousy.  In 
a  moment  of  peril  she  would  have  given  her  life  for 
the  Empress.  Like  Mary  Fleming,  in  The  Abbot, 
Eugenie's  "  First  Woman  of  the  Bedchamber  "  was 
ready  to  perform  any  and  every  detail  of  her  lady's 
toilet.  She  had  been  known  to  slip  the  Empress's 
shoes  into  her  pocket,  lest  some  other  dresser  should 
presume  to  put  them  on.  They  were  very  tiny 
shoes,  and  Eugenie's  dainty  feet  were  much  admired 
by  the  courtiers.  Marshal  Canrobert  tells  how  he 
and  Edgar  Ney,  after  seeing  her  walking  one  after- 
noon on  the  damp  road  near  the  Elysee  Gardens, 
went  down  and  with  a  handkerchief  measured  the 
exact  length  of  her  foot.  The  Empress  saw  them 
from  her  window,  and  called,  "  What  are  you  doing  ?  " 
They  pretended  that  they  were  only  seeking  a  lost 
handkerchief,  but  she  understood — and  took  no 
offence. 

Pepa  was  a  small,  dried-up  woman,  with  black, 
piercing  eyes.  She  was  delicate  and  extremely 
timid.  If  the  curtain  moved  she  would  imagine 
that  some  assassin  lurked  behind  it.  Then  the 
Empress  would  say,  "  Go,  Pepa,  see  what  there  is 
behind     that    curtain,"     and    the    waiting- woman 

137 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

would  obey  with  a  trembling  hesitancy  which 
highly  amused  her  mistress. 

Pepa  had  charge  of  the  Empress's  jewels,  furs, 
and  laces,  and  kept  her  private  accounts.  She 
enriched  herself  by  transactions  with  tradesmen, 
and  it  was  said  that  she  accumulated  two  million 
francs,  though  the  real  figure  was  less  than  half  that 
amount.  Eugenie  must  have  suspected  what  was 
going  on,  but  she  had  a  boundless  indulgence  for 
Pepa,  the  one  country  woman  of  her  own  who  was 
placed  beside  her.  "  Pauvre  Pepa,  comme  on  la 
juge !  "  she  used  to  say  when  complaints  were 
made.  The  under-servants  hated  Pepa,  who  was 
for  them  a  petty  tyrant,  but  they  forgave  all  for 
the  sake  of  their  gentle,  gracious  mistress. 

Pepa  had  no  political  influence,  and  did  not  ap- 
pear at  the  receptions,  though  the  Empress  was 
once  persuaded  to  grant  her  this  indulgence.  Eu- 
genie avoided  as  much  as  possible  political  talk  with 
her  ladies.  They  used  to  say,  "  We  have  not  the 
ear  of  Her  Majesty  on  that  side,  and  not  one  of  us 
would  dare  to  ask  her  any  questions." 

Madame  Carette  tells  a  characteristic  story  of 
Pepa  and  the  "  hand  of  justice."  The  Emperor 
was  to  be  painted  in  State  robes,  with  all  the  attri- 
butes of  sovereignty.  A  messenger  came  to  ask 
Pepa  to  give  her  the  hand  of  justice,  which  was 
absent  from  the  insignia.  "  The  hand  of  justice  !  " 
screamed  the  little  Spaniard  ;  "  no,  I  won't  give 
it !  But  what,"  she  asked  in  a  puzzled  voice, 
"is  the  hand  of  justice?"  On  hearing  the  ex- 
planation, she  ran  to  fetch  the  ornament.  "  Why, 
I     thought    it    was    some    high    position    in    the 

138 


The  Prince  Imperial 

magistracy  that  they  wanted  me  to  solicit  from  the 
Empress." 

One  of  the  most  faithful  servants  of  the  Tuileries 
was  Bignet.  He  was  familiarly  called  "  the  thir- 
teenth lady  of  the  Palace."  He  was  silent,  and 
devoted,  punctual  in  all  his  duties,  admirably  dis- 
creet. Madame  Carette  tells  that  when  the  Empress 
travelled  she  was  accustomed  to  take  with  her  an 
enamelled  tea-caddy  which  had  belonged  to  Na- 
poleon I,  and  two  little  silver  owls  as  salt-cellars. 
When  the  little  owls  were  not  in  their  usual  place  on 
the  tea-table  in  the  palace,  this  was  an  indication 
to  the  household  that  a  journey  was  in  prospect. 
Bignet  had  packed  them  up  to  accompany  the  Em- 
press. Sometimes  it  happened  that  the  owls  came 
back  to  the  table,  and  this  meant  that  the  plans 
had  been  altered. 

Bignet  followed  the  Empress  into  exile  and  died 
in  England. 

The  little  Lulu  was  growing  up  a  happy,  healthy 
child  under  the  care  of  his  excellent  English  govern- 
ess, Miss  Shaw,  and  of  l'Amirale  Bruat.  Napoleon, 
writing  from  Plombieres,  begs  the  Empress  to  warn 
the  nurse  not  to  let  him  go  too  near  the  pond  at 
Saint  Cloud.  "  You  and  the  little  one,"  he  says, 
1  are  all  the  world  to  me.  I  am  most  afraid  when 
I  am  happiest.     Take  great  care  of  him." 

While  absent  in  Italy  at  the  war  the  Emperor 
replied  to  a  message  from  the  Regent  that  their 
three-year-old  boy  had  grieved  over  his  father's 
leaving  :  "I  was  very  much  touched  to  hear  he  was 
sorry.     How  happy  I  should  be  to  see  him  again  ! 

139 


The  Empress  and  her  Court 

Tell  me  fully  all  that  he  does.  I  don't  want  him 
to  think  of  me,  for  at  his  age  we  must  not  excite  his 
feelings  too  much." 

The  child  Prince's  dearest  companion  was  Louis 
Conneau,  son  of  his  father's  old  and  faithful  friend, 
Dr.  Conneau,  who  had  planned  the  escape  from  Ham. 
Once  when  the  children  were  romping  in  the  Galerie 
des  Cerfs  at  Fontainebleau,  little  Conneau  asked  if 
it  was  not  there  that  Queen  Hortense  had  killed  her 
favourite  Monaldeschi.  (He  had  confused  her  with 
Queen  Christina  of  Sweden.)  The  tiny  Prince  drew 
himself  up  haughtily,  and  said,  with  an  offended  air, 
"  Queen  Hortense  was  my  grandmother,  and  I  am 
quite  sure  she  never  killed  anybody."  Then  he  ran 
off  to  his  mother  and  told  her  the  incident.  "  I 
defended  my  grandmother,  but  I  am  not  sure — did 
she  do  it  ?  " 

The  Gaulois,  in  a  very  interesting  article,  written 
after  the  death  of  Madame  Conneau,  mentioned  the 
names  of  other  personal  friends  of  the  young  Prince 
as  he  grew  towards  manhood.  Among  them  were 
Baron  Corvisart,  Vicomte  Jean  de  la  Bedoyere, 
Vicomte  Louis  de  la  Poeze,  Comte  Maurice  Fleury, 
Baron  Pierre  de  Bourgoing,  Vicomte  Adrien  Fleury, 
and  M.  Jules  Espinasse. 


140 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    EMPRESS   AND   THE    PEOPLE 

Eugenie  as  traveller — Among  the  Alps — Algeria — Death  of  the 
Duchess  of  Alba — The  Empress  and  Bishop  Dupanloup — Visit 
to  Scotland — Eugenie  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow — In  the 
hospital  at  Clermont — The  Empress  as  Churchwoman — Home 
troubles — The  Empress  and  Prince  Napoleon — With  the  cholera 
patients  at  Amiens. 

AMONG  the  pleasantest,  although  most  arduous 
A\  duties  of  the  Empress's  life  were  the  provincial 
tours  undertaken  almost  every  year  in  her  husband's 
company.  On  these  journeys  she  came  in  close 
touch  with  the  people,  and  they  showed  unbounded 
admiration  for  their  beautiful  Sovereign.  Fleury 
says  he  has  seen  women  weep  with  emotion  when 
she  entered  a  ballroom  on  the  arm  of  the  Emperor, 
radiant,  elegant,  and  perfectly  dressed.  "  She  fas- 
cinated, she  electrified  her  adorers."  It  was  Fleury's 
business  to  prepare,  not  only  the  official  programme 
of  these  tours,  but  a  private  note-book  for  the  Em- 
press's use  containing  the  names  of  the  local  people 
who  would  expect  attentions.  Eugenie  studied  this 
note-book  carefully,  and  when  staying  at  a  large 
town  such  as  Lyon  or  Orleans,  she  would  astonish 
the  inhabitants  by  her  intimate  knowledge  of  family 
names  and  circumstances. 

The  plan  of  one  provincial  progress  might  serve 

141 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

as  the  model  for  all.  They  must  have  been  ex- 
tremely fatiguing  for  the  Empress,  especially  when 
held  during  the  ardent  heat  of  August.  Unexpected 
stoppages  by  rail  displeased  her,  and  she  would  hide 
herself  in  the  depths  of  her  private  saloon  and  refuse 
to  appear  at  the  carriage  windows.  "  It  is  not  in 
the  book,"  she  would  say,  in  reply  to  the  remon- 
strances of  her  suite.  On  reaching  the  chief  city 
of  the  district  to  be  visited,  their  Majesties  drove 
first  to  the  cathedral,  where  they  received  an  address 
from  the  bishop  and  clergy.  The  Emperor  replied, 
and  then  the  Imperial  guests  were  shown  over  the 
building,  and  knelt  in  prayer  before  the  brilliantly 
lighted  high  altar.  They  next  drove  to  the  Pre- 
fecture, where  lodgings  were  prepared  for  them, 
and  the  evening  was  occupied  with  a  State  dinner 
and  ball. 

On  the  following  day  visits  must  be  made  to  the 
principal  public  buildings,  especially  the  hospitals, 
and  hours  might  be  occupied  with  some  ceremony, 
such  as  the  opening  of  a  bridge  or  Town  Hall.  Eu- 
genie must  often  have  returned  to  Paris  completely 
worn  out.  In  self-control,  patience,  and  fortitude 
she  was  worthy  of  her  great  position. 

The  longest  journey  undertaken  by  the  Sove- 
reigns in  company  was  that  of  i860,  when  they 
visited  the  new  provinces  of  Nice  and  Savoy,  pro- 
ceeding afterwards  to  Corsica  and  Algeria.  The 
departure  from  Saint  Cloud  took  place  early  in  the 
morning  of  23  August,  and  on  the  same  evening 
the  Empress  was  dancing  at  a  ball  given  in  the  old 
palace  of  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  at  Dijon.  A 
picture  of  the  times  shows  her  in  a  large  shawl  and 

142 


Eugenie  at  Chamonix 

crinolined  dress  of  enormous  width,  receiving  the 
homage  of  the  maidens  of  La  Bresse,  who  wear 
miniature  frocks  in  the  same  fashion.  The  extrava- 
gance of  the  crinoline  had  reached  its  height  in  i860, 
and  did  not  die  out  until  Worth  delivered  the  femi- 
nine world  from  its  tyranny  in  1864,  We  find  Bis- 
marck writing  to  his  wife  from  Paris  in  November, 
1862  :  "  I  cannot  carry  out  your  crinoline  commission. 
Yesterday  was  All  Saints'  Day,  to-day  Sunday  and 
All  Souls'  ;  all  shops  closed  and  not  a  lady  at  hand 
who  could  give  me  information." 

Their  Majesties  proceeded  to  Lyon,  where  there 
were  more  speeches,  receptions,  and  balls,  Na- 
poleon, with  his  habitual  thought  for  the  least  for- 
tunate, decorated  two  old  workmen  for  long  service. 
Eugenie  visited  the  Industrial  Exhibition,  and, 
seeing  a  needlewoman  embroidering  a  piece  of  silk 
brocade,  took  it  into  her  own  hands  and  made  a 
flower,  while  the  crowd  who  followed  her  footsteps 
cried,  "  Vive  l'lmpeVatrice  !  " 

More  amusing  than  these  city  fetes  was  the  visit 
to  Chamonix.  The  Empress  climbed  on  muleback 
to  the  Montanvert,  and  made  two  excursions  into 
the  ice-world,  one  to  the  Glacier  des  Bossons,  the 
other  to  the  Mer  de  Glace.  She  handled  her  alpen- 
stock cleverly,  though  the  guides  helped  her  on  the 
difficult  places.  Her  mountaineering  skirt,  as  shown 
in  drawings  of  the  time,  is  short,  and  though  very- 
much  wider  than  that  of  the  modern  lady  Alpinist, 
does  not  seem  to  have  a  crinoline  beneath  it.  A 
green  veil  was  worn  to  protect  the  eyes  from  the 
snow-glare.  Perhaps  it  may  have  been  in  memory 
of  her  Swiss  tour  that  the  Empress  learned  skating 

•43 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

during  the  severe  winter  of  1864.  Her  graceful  figure 
was  often  seen  flying  in  and  out  among  the  crowd 
on  the  ornamental  waters  of  the  Bois  de  Boulogne, 
and  frequent  tumbles  made  her  only  the  more  deter- 
mined to  attain  proficiency. 

The  addresses  presented  to  the  Sovereigns  in  the 
towns  they  visited  are  pathetic  reading  after  forty- 
six  years.  Each  contains  a  tender  and  hopeful  re- 
ference to  the  little  Prince  Imperial,  "  before  whom 
so  vast  an  horizon  is  opening."  "  The  Prince  Im- 
perial is  the  living  future  of  France,"  said  the  magis- 
trates of  Marseilles,  "  and  our  sons  will  love  him  as 
you  have  been  loved  by  us."  We  recall  Francois 
Villon's  sigh  over  departed  royal  glories  in  his 
"  Ballad  of  Dead  Lords  "  :— 

Mais  ou  est  le  preux  Charlemagne  ? 

From  Marseilles  the  travellers  proceeded  to  Cor- 
sica and  Algiers;  and  now  a  great  sorrow  was  drawing 
near  to  the  Empress.  Her  beautiful  and  beloved 
sister,  the  Duchess  of  Alba,  the  companion  of  her 
girlhood,  died  in  Paris  on  16  September,  after  a 
lingering  and  painful  illness.  Three  children  were 
left,  to  whom  the  Empress  proved  a  second  mother. 

Magnificent  fetes  had  been  prepared  at  Algiers, 
and  the  Empress,  knowing  only  that  her  sister  was 
seriously  ill,  accompanied  Napoleon  to  the  cere- 
monies, and  laid  the  first  stone  of  the  Boulevard 
Eugenie.  It  is  not  quite  certain  at  what  moment 
the  sad  news  was  broken  to  her — possibly  not  until 
the  Aigle  had  completed  its  stormy  return  journey 
and  landed  the  tourists  at  the  little  fishing-village 
of  Port-Vendres.     The  holiday  came  to  a  melan- 

144 


Death  of  the  Duchess  of  Alba 

choly  close,  Eugenie  remaining  shut  up  in  her  cabin 
on  the  crossing  from  Africa.  She  reached  Paris  too 
late  for  the  funeral  service  for  the  Duchess  of  Alba, 
which  had  been  held  at  the  Madeleine  on  20  Sep- 
tember. 

Something  of  the  Empress's  feeling  in  this  great 
bereavement  may  be  gathered  from  a  letter  written 
to  Countess  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie  :  "If  you  knew 
all  that  I  have  suffered  in  these  last  days ! 
There  was  the  constant  anxiety  during  my  journey 
and  my  stay  in  Algeria,  and  on  coming  home  I 
found  only  the  empty  house,  without  even  having 
the  consolation  of  clasping  her  lifeless  body.  You 
have  in  this  a  brief  resume  of  the  price  that  must  be 
paid  for  the  high  positions  of  the  earth.  Often  one 
reaches  them  only  by  treading  on  one's  own  heart. 
I  have  sadly  changed  my  views  on  such  points,  and 

I  ask  myself  whether  the  good  things  of  this  world 
are  worth  the  trouble  we  take  to  preserve  them." 

A  less  personal  but  not  less  real  trouble  for  the 
Empress  was  the  defeat  of  the  Papal  forces  at  Castel- 
fidardo,  on  18  September.  From  the  Italian  war 
onwards  she  disliked  and  distrusted  her  husband's 
policy  towards  the  Vatican,  and  we  have  Merimee's 
testimony  that  many  disputes  arose  between  hus- 
band and  wife  on  this  question.  There  may  be  no 
truth  in  the  rumour  that  Eugenie  said  to  Napoleon, 

II  If  you  do  not  protect  the  Pope,  your  son  will 
never  reign";  nor  need  we  accept  all  the  stories 
of  her  fanatical  devotion  to  the  priests  and  the 
influence  they  won  over  her  mind.  It  was  not 
mere  bigotry  which  made  her  desire  that  France 
should  prop  up  the  tottering  power  of  Pius  IX.     She 

L  145 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

saw  that  an  anti-Papal  policy  meant  the  alienation 
from  the  Empire  of  the  powerful  Catholic  party. 
There  is  a  letter  written  to  the  Empress  by  Mgr. 
Dupanloup,  the  great  Bishop  of  Orleans,  in  which 
he  thanks  her  for  defending  the  Pope.  This  pre- 
late's address  on  the  "  martyrs  of  Castelfidardo  " 
rang  through  France  like  a  trumpet.  Speaking  of 
those  who  had  fallen  in  the  Pope's  quarrel,  he 
said,  "We  lay  upon  their  distant  tombs,  not  our  tears, 
but  our  praises  and  our  prayers.  Over  their  mortal 
remains,  the  precious  deposit  of  their  blessed  ashes, 
we  say  to  their  immortal  souls  :  "  You  are  happy 
indeed,  for  all  that  earth  has  of  honour  and  glory 
rests  upon  you,  with  the  virtue  of  God."  At  the 
close  he  apostrophized  the  hills  of  Castelfidardo,  and 
said  that  they  were  consecrated  by  the  blood  of 
martyrs.  The  passion  of  his  utterance  thrilled  the 
nation,  and  this  sermon  was  one  of  the  many  in- 
fluences that  alienated  the  Catholic  world  from  the 
Empire.  Dupanloup  had  never  been  a  partisan  of 
Napoleon,  preferring  to  stand  aloof,  after  the  Coup 
d'Etat,  but  his  correspondence  shows  that  he  felt 
kindly  towards  the  Empress,  to  whom  he  must  have 
been  drawn  by  their  mutual  affection  for  Marie 
Antoinette.  Napoleon  and  Eugenie  met  the  Bishop 
at  Orleans  in  1868.  It  was  the  year  when  the  Prince 
Imperial  had  made  his  first  communion,  and  Dupan- 
loup summed  up  his  good  wishes  in  these  words : 
"  May  you  see  the  young  Prince,  your  love  and  your 
hope,  grow  up  in  that  firm  piety  which,  as  Bossuet 
said  to  the  son  of  Louis  XIV,  is  the  perfection  of 
the  man  and  the  prince  !  " 

Prince   Metternich   and   his   wife   supported   the 

146 


Italian  Policy  of  the  Empress 

Empress  in  her  Italian  policy,  and  encouraged  her 
hopes  of  maintaining  the  Pope's  temporal  power. 
In  a  letter  written  on  27  September,  1862,  to  a 
member  of  the  courtly  circle  at  the  Tuileries,  the 
Austrian  Ambassador  said  :  "  One  of  my  friends 
writes  me  that  you  seem  disturbed  by  the  efforts 
which  the  extreme  party  is  making  in  order  to  pro- 
cure new  concessions  on  the  Roman  question.  I 
assure  you  that  after  my  last  interview  with  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  at  Saint  Cloud,  I  cannot  be- 
lieve that  this  party  has  the  slightest  chance  of 
success.  The  words  I  heard  from  the  Emperor's 
lips  were  so  explicit  and  so  worthy  of  him  that  I  took 
away  with  me  a  conviction  (which  facts  alone  would 
cause  me  to  abandon)  that  the  present  rule  will  be 
maintained  at  Rome  so  long  as  it  is  impossible  for 
the  French  army  to  leave  the  eternal  city  with  honour. 
You  know  how  pleased  I  am  to  be  able  to  proclaim 
aloud  with  what  firmness  the  Emperor  has  always 
kept  the  promises  he  has  made  to  me,  and  the  as- 
surances he  has  given  me.  I  am  also  persuaded 
that  the  Emperor,  while  guarding  his  own  interest 
in  Italy,  will  not  give  way  on  the  essential  question. 
Such  was  the  belief  of  Her  who,  to  me  and  to  many 
others,  represents  in  her  person  the  dignity  of  France 
and  its  loyalty  to  the  dynasty." 

Private  sorrow  and  political  chagrin  undermined 
the  Empress's  health,  and  in  the  middle  of  No- 
vember, i860,  it  was  suddenly  announced  that  she 
was  leaving  for  a  holiday  in  Scotland.  "  The 
Empress,"  writes  Merimee  on  n  November,  "  wishes 
to  visit  Edinburgh  incog,  to  recruit  a  little  after 
the  death  of  her  sister.     Imagine  what  will  be  said, 

147 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

and  all  the  tales  which  will  be  made  out  of  it." 
Merimee  himself  calls  the  announcement  "  a 
queer  piece  of  news,"  and  it  did  arouse,  as  he  ex- 
pected, various  rumours.  One  of  these  was  that 
Eugenie  was  jealous  of  the  attention  which  Na- 
poleon was  paying  to  a  lady  of  the  Court;  but  if 
that  were  the  cause,  the  poor  Empress  might  very 
often  have  set  forth  on  solitary  wanderings.  On  the 
Emperor's  character  in  such  matters  there  is  a 
significant  passage  in  one  of  Bismarck's  letters  to 
his  wife.  He  thought  the  French  ruler  could  form 
no  idea  of  German  family  happiness.  "  With  the 
Empress  he  could  really  have  no  true  idea  of  the 
family.  .  .  .  She  could  be  most  charming,  but  when 
she  practised  this  power  on  me,  I  always  felt  that 
I  must  be  more  than  usual  on  the  qui  vive."  In 
other  letters  Bismarck  declares  himself  a  sworn  ad- 
mirer of  the  Empress,  so  we  must  not  take  the  last 
passage  too  seriously.  Writing  in  1857  he  says  : 
"  Yesterday  at  the  Emperor's  dinner,  I  had  the  most 
charming  neighbour,  the  Empress,  truly  an  extra- 
ordinary woman,  and  not  only  outwardly." 

The  Empress,  in  the  autumn  of  i860,  was  weary 
of  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  palace  life,  and 
longed  to  escape  for  one  short  month  into  a  freer 
atmosphere.  It  is  not  surprising  that  sorrow  should 
have  indisposed  her  for  the  frivolous  autumn  pas- 
times of  Compiegne.  On  Wednesday,  14  November, 
Napoleon  saw  the  "  Countess  of  Pierrefonds  "  away 
from  the  Gare  du  Nord.  She  was  accompanied  by 
the  Princess  d'Essling,  Madame  de  Saulcy,  and  one 
or  two  gentlemen  of  her  suite.  The  Government 
papers  had  received  orders  not  to  write  about  her 

148 


Eugenie  in  Scotland 

departure,  and  this  foolish  mystification  accounted 
for  half  the  silly  stories  that  flew  through  Paris.  On 
Saturday,  17  November,  the  Empress  arrived  in 
Edinburgh  and  drove  to  the  Douglas  Hotel.  The 
Scotsman  pointed  out  that  "since  hapless  Mary, 
Queen  of  Scots,  landed  at  Leith  three  hundred  years 
ago,  no  royal  lady  of  France  has  till  yesterday 
visited  the  Scottish  capital."  On  Sunday  the  Em- 
press walked  to  St.  Mary's  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
Broughton  Street,  returning  on  foot  through  a 
snow-shower.  On  Monday  she  visited  Holyrood 
Palace,  where  she  examined  with  interest  all  the 
relics  of  Queen  Mary.  It  had  been  her  wish  to  climb 
Arthur's  Seat,  but  the  weather  was  too  wintry. 
Melrose,  Abbotsford,  and  Dalkeith  were  visited. 
The  Town  Council  presented  an  address  on  the  eve 
of  her  departure.  Eugenie  regretted  that  she  did  not 
know  English  well  enough  to  reply  at  length,  and 
added  that  she  had  a  very  kind  and  affectionate 
feeling  towards  Scotland  and  its  people. 

On  23  November  the  travellers  arrived  at  Birnam 
Hotel,  Dunkeld.  At  Blair  Atholl  they  were  received 
by  the  Duke  of  Atholl,  who  conducted  the  Empress 
to  see  the  Pass  of  Killiecrankie.  A  visit  to  the  Mar- 
quis of  Breadalbane  at  Taymouth  Castle,  and  a  short 
excursion  to  Stirling,  filled  the  time  until  the  Em- 
press went  to  Glasgow  on  27  November.  Late  as 
the  season  was,  she  travelled  through  the  Trossachs, 
delighting  in  the  lovely  scenery  of  Loch  Lomond  and 
Loch  Katrine.  At  Perth  she  observed  an  old  soldier 
who  appeared  to  be  in  ill-health,  and  handed  him  a 
gift  of  money.  One  of  her  attendants  remarked  that 
he  was  a  Waterloo  man.     "  Then  he  deserves  it  all 


149 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

the  more,"  said  the  Empress,  "  for  he  contended 
with  a  brave  enemy." 

The  Duchess  of  Hamilton,  nee  Princess  Marie  of 
Baden,  entertained  the  Empress  at  Hamilton  Palace. 
On  St.  Andrew's  Day  she  was  at  Manchester,  re- 
ceiving an  address  from  the  Town  Council.  At  the 
close  of  the  holiday  Eugenie  lunched  with  the  Queen 
and  Prince  Albert  at  Windsor.  While  staying  at 
Claridge's  Hotel  in  London  she  called  on  Mr.  Panizzi 
at  the  British  Museum,  and  was  shown  over  the  new 
Reading  Room.  At  Madame  Tussaud's  two  hours 
were  spent.  In  London  it  was  possible  for  the  Em- 
press to  go  about  as  a  private  person,  while  in  smaller 
towns,  such  as  Leamington,  she  was  constantly 
mobbed. 

On  13  December  she  was  again  in  Paris.  Her 
health  had  benefited  considerably  by  the  change,  and 
her  mind  had  regained  its  wonted  calm.  In  the 
autumn  of  1861  several  of  her  Scottish  hosts  were 
entertained  at  Compiegne. 

The  next  important  event  for  the  Empress  was  the 
journey  to  Auvergne  with  her  husband  and  son  in 
the  summer  of  1862.  Sympathy  for  the  poor  and 
suffering  had  been  quickened  in  Eugenie's  heart  by 
her  own  recent  trials.  The  people  adored  her 
beauty,  and  called  her  in  their  queer  patois,  "  La 
dzente  fenno,"  "  la  jolie  femme."  At  Clermont  she 
spent  much  time  in  the  hospital  and  the  children's 
hospice,  making  careful  inquiries  about  the  health 
and  education  of  the  little  ones  and  chatting 
brightly  with  nurses  and  matrons.  In  the  address 
read  to  the  Empress  at  Clermont  this  passage  ap- 
peared to  give  her  particular  pleasure  :   "  The  sweet- 

150 


In  the  Hospital  at  Clermont 

est  words  of  the  Gospel — those  which  go  straight  to 
the  heart  of  a  mother — is  that  gracious  invitation  of 
the  Divine  Man  to  the  women  of  Judea,  '  Let  your 
little  ones  come  unto  Me.'  Following  the  example 
of  the  Divine  Saviour,  your  Majesty  has  understood 
and  appreciated  the  charm  of  childhood.  Like  Him, 
you  love  to  gather  round  you  the  poorest  children  of 
your  people." 

At  the  hospital,  where  she  visited  every  bed,  a 
wounded  soldier  attracted  her  attention.  "  Doctor," 
she  said, "  promise  that  you  will  not  let  this  man  die." 

Another  patient,  the  young  father  of  a  family,  lay 
on  a  bed  of  suffering.  The  Empress  inquired  into 
his  case,  and  was  told  that  if  he  could  afford  to  take 
the  waters  of  Bourbon  l'Archambault  he  might  re- 
cover. "  My  friend,"  said  Eugenie  reproachfully, 
'  why  did  you  not  write  to  me  long  ago  ?  Am  I  not 
the  mother  of  all  who  suffer  ?  General  Fleury,  come 
and  take  the  name  of  this  young  man  ;  and  you,  my 
friend,  will  go  to  this  watering-place  ;  you  will  be 
cured,  and  soon  you  will  come  back  to  your  children." 

Standing  by  the  bedside  of  a  consumptive  patient, 
Eugenie  again  appealed  to  the  doctors.  "  Oh, 
gentlemen,  do  try  to  rind  some  cure  for  this  dread- 
ful malady."  Her  eyes,  full  of  tears  as  she  bent  over 
the  couch  of  pain,  revealed  to  all  around  the  depth 
and  sincerity  of  her  feeling. 

From  i860  onwards  we  can  trace  the  influence  of 
Eugenie  in  the  field  of  foreign  politics.  It  was 
known  to  every  one  that  on  the  Roman  question 
her  desires  conflicted  with  those  of  the  Emperor. 
Her  friend  Merimee  strove  to  modify  her  strong 
ultramontane   sympathies,   but  he,   as   an   avowed 

'Si 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

sceptic,  probably  did  more  harm  than  good.  There 
are  expressions  in  his  letters  which  jar  on  the  ears 
of  Protestants  as  well  as  of  Romanists.  Thus,  in 
1862,  he  says  :  "  Voltairean  though  she  is,  it  is  more 
than  doubtful  if  France  would  rejoice  in  the  down- 
fall of  the  old  fool  [Pius  IX]  she  now  makes  game  of, 
or  even  if  she  would  be  indifferent."  He  records 
with  satisfaction  the  story  of  the  discomfiture  of  a 
parish  priest  by  Princess  Mathilde.  "  A  few  days 
ago  the  Princess  Mathilde  was  imprudent  enough  to 
go  to  Mass  at  Saint  Gatien,  where  she  has  a  country 
house.  The  cure  took  it  into  his  head  to  offer  up 
an  impromptu  prayer  that  God  would  open  the 
eyes  of  the  great  ones  of  the  earth  and  inspire  them 
not  to  persecute  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Princess  got  up  in  a  rage  and  walked  straight  out  of 
the  church,  and  to  make  matters  still  better  the 
whole  of  the  congregation  followed  her  and  left  the 
cure  all  alone  with  the  beadle." 

It  seemed  a  very  fine  thing,  no  doubt,  to  Merimee 
that  a  congregation,  headed  by  a  princess,  should 
walk  out  of  church  and  leave  a  poor  country  priest 
alone  with  his  sexton,  but  behind  the  priest  were  the 
hearts  and  the  votes  of  thousands  of  Frenchmen. 
That  large  public  which,  though  Catholic,  was  in  no 
way  tempted  to  a  blind  devotion  to  the  Vatican,  set 
down  such  wanton  insults  to  the  Emperor's  account 
and  silently  withdrew  their  sympathy  from  his 
government. 

In  i860,  at  the  Theatre  Porte  Saint-Martin,  there 
was  given  a  play  written  by  M.  Mocquart,  Napoleon's 
secretary,  and  called  "  La  Tireuse  des  Cartes,"  in 
which  Pius  IX  was  directly  insulted. 

152 


The   Empress  as  Churchwoman 

Mistaken  as  the  Empress  may  have  been  in  her 
reactionary  Italian  policy,  her  views  are  at  least 
more  deserving  of  respect  than  the  insolent  infidelity 
of  some  of  her  courtiers.  Had  we  been  trained  to 
regard  a  great  bishop  or  a  venerated  pastor  as  the 
representative  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth,  should  we 
not  have  clung  to  him  passionately,  through  all  his 
misfortunes,  and  desired  to  see  his  influence  and  his 
power  restored  ?  The  word  "  priest-ridden  "  has  an 
ugly  sound,  and  it  has  been  used  with  constant  bitter- 
ness against  the  Empress,  but  with  her  it  was  a 
synonym  for  loyalty  and  true  religion.  We  can 
imagine  how,  after  the  suppression  of  the  Univers 
in  this  Papal  quarrel,  she  must  have  followed  with 
profound  sympathy  the  fortunes  of  its  editor,  Louis 
Veuillot.  The  cause  he  fought  for  was  the  cause  she 
loved. 

The  French  Church  of  the  Second  Empire  con- 
tained men  who  were  the  light  and  glory  of  our 
common  Christendom.  Eugenie  was  the  contempo- 
rary of  Gratry,  Lacordaire,  Ravignan,  Henri  Per- 
reyve,  Montalembert,  the  Abbe  Deguerry,  Arch- 
bishop Darboy,  the  Cardinal  de  Bonnechose,  and 
Bishop  Dupanloup.  Which  of  us  would  not  lavish 
a  whole-hearted  affection  on  the  Church — if  it  were 
our  Church — which  contained  such  men  ? 

Would  not  Eugenie  have  made  her  own  that  prayer 
which  Montalembert  wrote  at  the  age  of  seventeen  : 
"  Let  us  pray  the  All-powerful  for  each  other  ;  that 
He  will  give  us  a  good  death  ;  that  He  will  conduct 
us  to  it  through  a  life  which  shall  please  Him  ;  that 
we  may  descend  into  the  grave  with  the  consolation 
of  having  loved  God  more  even  than  freedom  and 

»53 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

our  country,  a  thousand  times  more  than  life.  In 
praying  for  ourselves,  let  us  also  pray  for  our  beauti- 
ful France  ;  let  us  pray  the  God  of  mercy  to  grant 
her  the  freedom  which  she  has  bought  at  the  price  of 
so  much  blood  and  tears,  and  to  preserve  to  her  that 
holy  religion  without  which  there  is  neither  happi- 
ness, glory,  nor  true  freedom  "  ? 

As  for  Louis  Veuillot,  though  the  difficult  paths 
in  which  he  walked  may  have  sometimes  made  him 
"  less  noble  than  himself,"  I  never  think  of  the  death 
of  the  Prince  Imperial  without  remembering  the 
tender  words  he  wrote  to  a  bereaved  friend  :  "  Look 
up  to  heaven,  and  there  you  will  see  your  dear  lost 
one,  as  we  see  from  the  road,  on  our  return,  the  face 
of  the  child  at  the  window  of  the  house.  Does  not 
that  give  us  strength  enough  to  ascend  thither  ?  " 

The  strong  line  taken  by  the  Empress  on  the 
Roman  question  disturbed  her  domestic  peace  for 
several  years.  Merimee  describes  a  "  regular  pitched 
battle  "  at  Biarritz  in  September,  1862.  Eugenie 
"  spoke  with  a  great  amount  of  vivacity,  but  without 
any  show  of  anger.  As  far  as  I  can  judge,  I  was  as 
firm  as  I  could  be,  keeping  cool,  but  not  budging  an 
inch.  ...  A  point  of  honour,  a  desire  to  show 
M.  Keller  and  others  like  him  that  nobody  is  afraid  ; 
a  wish  to  show  England  that  nothing  will  be  done 
under  pressure  of  a  threat ;  anxiety  lest  an  oppor- 
tunity should  be  afforded  the  '  Reds ' — these  were 
her  arguments.  .  .  .  The  discussion  came  to  an  end 
through  our  throats  being  tired,  and  there  was  pro- 
found silence  for  eight  or  ten  minutes,  after  which  I 
thought  she  was  more  than  ordinarily  attentive  to 
me  ;   evidently  to  show  me  that  she  was  not  angry. 

154 


Merimee  and  the  Empress 

She  even  asked  Madame  de  Rayneval  whether  she 
thought  I  was  hurt,  a  trait  eminently  characteristic 
of  her,  as  you  know." 

Merimee  was  too  useful  a  henchman  to  be  quar- 
relled with.  No  familiar  of  the  Court  served  the 
Empress  with  a  more  steadfast  devotion.  He  was 
in  broken  health  during  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life, 
but  season  after  season  we  find  him  at  Compiegne 
and  Fontainebleau,  confessing  the  irksomeness  of 
his  task,  yet  ever  returning  to  the  side  of  his  Sove- 
reign. From  Compiegne  he  writes,  in  November, 
1862,  "  Things  do  not  go  on  in  the  same  way  as  at 
Biarritz  ;  I  am  taken  possession  of  from  morning 
till  night.  Add  to  this  that  I  had  the  parts  to  learn 
in  a  very  short  time,  and  rehearsals  morning  and 
evening.  Everything,  however,  went  off  very  well." 
The  Empress  used  to  call  herself  "  the  little  mouse 
of  the  palace,"  which  crept  up  and  gathered  uncon- 
sidered trifles  such  as  letters  and  State  documents, 
all  of  which  were  filed  and  preserved.  It  is  amusing 
to  see  how  the  cleverest  men  of  the  day  were  content 
with  the  role  of  palace-mice,  satisfied  if  they  might 
but  nibble  from  the  hand  of  royalty. 

One  of  the  games  at  Compiegne  that  winter  was 
the  composition  of  epigrams  on  the  personages  of  the 
Court,  beginning  with  their  Majesties.  No  wonder 
that  M.  de  Morny  was  somewhat  nervous,  and  that 
'  Lord  Hertford,  on  hearing  his  name,  was  frightened 
out  of  his  life."  Merimee  could  be  trusted  not  to 
overstep  the  limits  of  good  taste,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  ventured  far  enough  to  make  the  game 
amusing.  The  Emperor  was  rallied  on  his  taste  for 
Roman  antiquities,  and  the  Empress  on  her  fancy 

>55 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

for  furnishing  and  arranging  her  apartments  so  that 
nobody  could  move  in  them.  Such  pleasures  were 
not  arranged  without  cost  to  the  principal  organizer, 
and  Merimee  confesses  to  fatigue,  and  even  to  illness, 
after  he  left  the  palace. 

The  history  of  the  Mexican  war  belongs  to  the 
least  glorious  annals  of  the  Second  Empire.  In 
April,  1862,  war  had  been  declared  against  Juarez, 
and  after  a  defeat  at  Puebla,  followed  by  several  suc- 
cesses, the  French  army  occupied  Mexico  on  10  June, 

1863.  In  the  following  month  a  hereditary  mon- 
archical government  was  established,  and  in  June, 

1864,  the  Archduke  Maximilian  of  Austria  entered 
the  capital  as  Emperor.  His  reign  lasted  almost 
exactly  three  years,  Juarez  returning  to  Mexico  city 
in  July,  1867. 

With  the  masses  of  the  French  people  the  Mexican 
expedition  was  never  popular.  The  country  needed 
a  long  rest  after  the  costly  wars  of  the  Crimea  and 
Italy.  M.  Rouher  described  the  Mexican  adventure 
as  the  greatest  enterprise  of  the  reign  ;  but  this  was 
not  the  view  of  wiser  statesmen.  "  Two  sinister  in- 
fluences combined  to  damage  it  in  public  opinion. 
The  Church  party  and  the  speculators,  for  whom  the 
Duke  of  Morny  acted,  were  its  active  supporters ; 
and  from  the  time  when  the  French  expedition 
parted  from  the  Spaniards  and  the  English,  and 
made  war  to  establish  a  Catholic  empire  in  the  place 
of  the  American  Republic,  they  alone  defended  it." 
The  Empress  Eugenie  was  blamed  severely  for  the 
eager  support  she  lent  to  this  reckless  and  unprofit- 
able enterprise. 

An  event  of  international  interest  was  the  visit  of 

156 


The  Empress  visits  Spain 

the  Empress  of  the  French  to  the  Court  of  Spain  in 
1863.  The  United  States  Ambassador  in  Madrid 
sent  home  an  account  of  her  social  triumph  :  "  I  hate 
the  Empire  and  everything  connected  with  it,"  he 
wrote.  "  Moreover,  I  believe  I  am  right  in  thinking 
that  the  Empress  has  come  to  Spain,  and  especially 
to  the  Court,  to  pave  the  way  for  a  union,  or  at  all 
events,  for  cordial  co-operation  in  the  Mexican  in- 
trigue." He  admits  that  in  Madrid  evil  tongues  had 
whispered  defamatory  reports  with  regard  to  this 
beautiful  Sovereign,  and  that  he  had  been  little  dis- 
posed to  succumb  to  her  charms.  "At  a  gala 
performance  in  the  theatre  I  saw  her  for  a  few 
minutes  in  a  very  poor  light,  but  still,  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  quite  worth  while  to  study 
her  appearance  more  closely.  When  I  met  her  yes- 
terday in  the  hall  of  the  Embassy,  simply  dressed, 
wearing  her  hat,  and  speaking  Spanish,  her  features 
lighted  up,  and  fingers,  face,  and  little  feet  all  in 
animated  movement  as  she  talked,  I  laid  down  my 
arms  on  the  spot  ;  I  lost  the  battle  at  the  first  on- 
slaught. Yes,  she  is  beautiful,  more  lovely  than 
words  can  express.  And  how  sparkling  she  was  at 
the  banquet  that  evening  !  .  .  .  The  Empress  is  of 
middle  height,  not  so  tall  as  her  portrait  led  me  to 
suppose,  but  at  the  same  time  comely.  She  has  the 
figure  of  a  girl,  the  very  model  of  a  Hebe.  Her  bust, 
neck,  shoulders,  arms,  and  especially  her  hands,  are 
incomparably  beautiful,  and  she  has  the  grace  of  an 
Andalusian  danseuse.  But  to  gain  the  very  best 
impression  of  her,  one  must  hear  her  converse  in 
Spanish.  On  account  of  her  Scotch  descent,  she 
naturally  speaks  English  like  her  mother-tongue,  and 

•57 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

she  is  perfectly  fluent  in  French  ;  but  these  two  lan- 
guages she  speaks  with  the  mouth  only.  She  was 
talking  to  the  King  with  great  animation,  and  eyes, 
mouth,  hands,  and  especially  her  pretty  fingers, 
seemed  to  be  equally  expressive,  and  to  impart  to 
her  words  the  very  essence  of  their  meaning  and  im- 
portance. How  completely  she  put  the  good  Queen 
into  the  shade  this  evening  !  Isabella  is  three  or  four 
years  her  junior,  but  how  terribly  Bourbon  she 
looked  !  After  coffee  an  informal  reception  was  held 
in  the  royal  drawing-room,  when  their  Majesties 
simply  bowed  to  most  of  the  guests  and  exchanged 
a  few  words  with  one  here  and  there  as  they  stood 
in  rows  or  groups.  The  Queen  dragged  herself  from 
one  to  the  other,  nodding  and  smiling  in  her  usual 
friendly  manner ;  Eugenie,  on  the  contrary,  flitted 
from  one  to  another,  going  up  close,  almost  affection- 
ately, to  some,  and  chatting  in  the  most  winsome 
way.  But  the  contrast  was  the  more  apparent  when 
they  took  leave  and  turned  to  bow  to  the  guests. 
The  Queen  set  her  whole  body  in  motion,  and  nodded 
her  head  as  familiarly  as  any  citizen's  wife  ;  but 
Eugenie  turned  towards  them  in  all  her  graceful 
charm,  placed  her  feet  firmly,  and  then  stood  bend- 
ing the  upper  part  of  her  body  back  and  bringing 
it  forward  again  with  the  easiest,  prettiest  move- 
ment from  side  to  side,  like  a  swan  curving  its  neck. 
Then,  without  turning,  she  slowly  withdrew  back- 
wards to  the  doorway.  In  this  way  she  copied  to 
perfection  the  wonderful  swaying  movement  in 
which  the  Andalusian  danseuses  are  inimitable. 

"  And  then  the  dress  !     The  ladies  contemplated 
it  in  silent  awe,  and  even  grave  diplomatists  were  in 

158 


Prince  Napoleon's  Enmity 

raptures  about  the  arrangement  and  adorning  of  her 
hair.  Perhaps  for  an  Empress  she  was  too  much  of 
a  coquette,  but  as  an  Andalusian,  which  she  is,  and 
looked  upon  simply  as  a  woman,  she  was  the  most 
perfect  creature  I  have  seen  anywhere." 

The  same  writer  gives  a  characteristic  portrait  of 
Eugenie's  mother,  the  Countess  of  Montijo.  "  I  saw 
that  when  she  had  taken  her  seat  at  table  she  seemed 
to  forget  her  surroundings,  and  to  be  sunk  in  con- 
templation of  her  daughter,  who  was  placed  between 
the  King  and  the  Infanta  Sebastian.  Her  right  hand 
mechanically  clasped  the  good-sized  roll  that  was  in 
front  of  her,  and  before  the  soup  was  served  she 
began  to  munch  it,  unbroken,  to  my  great  amuse- 
ment. I  am  certain  that  she  never  had  the  least 
conception  what  she  was  eating  or  drinking.  When 
I  accosted  her  after  dinner,  and  remarked  how  envi- 
able her  lot  was,  she  pressed  both  my  hands  with  a 
warmth  and  a  radiancy  of  expression  incredible  in 
such  a  woman  of  the  world,  who  from  being  the 
daughter  of  a  Scotch  tradesman  has  raised  herself 
to  the  rank  of  Countess,  who  has  given  one  daughter 
to  an  Emperor,  not  as  a  mistress,  but  as  a  wife,  and 
whose  other  daughter  was  married  to  one  of  the 
highest  grandees  of  the  kingdom." 

An  unpleasant  symptom  of  these  years  (1860- 
1865)  was  the  growing  hostility  between  the  Empress 
and  Prince  Napoleon.  At  a  dinner-party  on  15 
November,  1863,  the  Prince  was  requested  to  propose 
the  health  of  Her  Majesty,  on  whose  right  hand  he 
was  seated.  He  made  a  grimace  and  remained  sul- 
kily silent.  The  Empress,  with  ready  tact,  said  to 
him,  "  I  am  not  particularly  anxious  for  a  speech. 

159 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

You  are  very  eloquent,  but  your  speeches  sometimes 
alarm  me."  In  reply  to  a  second  appeal  from  the 
Emperor,  this  most  unpopular  Frenchman  of  his 
time  merely  answered,  "  I  am  not  accustomed  to 
speak  in  public."  "  Then  you  do  not  wish  to  pro- 
pose the  health  of  the  Empress  ?  "  "If  your  Ma- 
jesty will  excuse  me,  I  would  rather  not."  Another 
guest  then  proposed  the  toast,  and  the  party  rose 
from  table  amid  a  hum  of  talk.  Eugenie  took  the 
Prince's  arm  to  the  drawing-room,  and  he  stood 
there  isolated,  shunned  by  every  one  for  his  boor- 
ishness. 

The  Emperor  showed  constant  indulgence  to  this 
disagreeable  cousin,  who  was  accustomed  to  pose  as 
a  Liberal,  but  was  hated  equally  by  all  parties.  It 
is  not  altogether  incomprehensible,  perhaps,  why 
some  students  of  prophecy  fixed  upon  him  as  the 
future  Antichrist  ! 

The  Empress  went  to  Schwalbach  in  October,  1864, 
as  her  health  again  gave  cause  for  anxiety.  "  The 
tales  told  and  the  nonsense  talked  about  this  excur- 
sion are  marvellous,"  writes  Merimee  ;  "  more  than 
that,  sober-minded  people,  and  those  who  have  the 
reputation  of  being  so,  actually  believe  all  the  lies 
that  are  circulated.  Among  other  reports  there  is 
one  about  a  visit  of  her  Majesty  to  Mademoiselle 

,  to  request  her  not  to  live  any  longer  at  Mon- 

tretout,  on  account  of  the  annoyance  experienced 
by  the  sight  of  her  house  from  the  windows  of  Saint 
Cloud." 

In  February,  1865,  we  read  of  the  Empress  being 
"  nearly  always  alone."  In  March  she  is  "  very  well, 
but  very  melancholy."     In  May  Merimee  finds  the 

160 


The  Second  Regency 

ways  of  the  Imperial  household  changed.  "  They 
are  less  gay,  but  more  tranquil.  I  fancy  that  during 
the  last  year  she  has  learned  much  about  men  and 
things." 

The  summer  of  1865  was  the  date  of  the  Empress's 
second  Regency,  during  the  absence  of  her  husband 
in  Algeria.  Her  trials  were  increased  at  this  time 
by  the  delicate  health  of  the  Prince  Imperial,  over 
whom  she  watched  in  every  illness  with  anxious 
care. 

Better  relations  between  the  Sovereigns  were  es- 
tablished after  the  Emperor's  return,  but  still  from 
time  to  time  the  differences  reappeared.  The  Em- 
press, in  1866,  wished  to  travel  to  Rome  to  see  the 
Pope.  "  It  is  only  too  true,"  says  M£rimee,  "  that 
our  friend  Madame  de  la  Rune  wants  to  go  to  Rome. 
All  the  household,  especially  the  principals,  oppose 
the  idea  as  much  as  they  possibly  can.  I  am  very 
much  afraid  that  Monsieur  de  la  Rune  (the  Emperor), 
who  has  a  horror  of  scenes,  dare  not  say  '  no.'  I 
leave  you  to  imagine  the  advice  which  just  now  is 
likely  to  be  given  by  a  person  who  fears  nothing 
and  looks  at  everything  from  a  chivalrous  point  of 


view." 


Personal  courage  has  always  been  a  notable 
characteristic  of  the  Empress  Eugenie.  While  stay- 
ing at  Biarritz,  when  she  heard  that  the  little  daugh- 
ter of  Emile  de  Girardin  was  lying  dangerously  ill  of 
diphtheria,  she  sent  her  own  doctor  and  paid  a  visit 
to  the  bedside  of  the  dying  child, 

Cholera  was  devastating  France  in  the  summer 
of  1866,  and  Eugenie,  with  noble  courage,  resolved 
to   visit   the   patients   in   the   hospital   at   Amiens. 

M  l6l 


The  Empress  and  the  People 

Never  during  her  reign  of  seventeen  years  as  Em- 
press-consort did  she  come  so  near  to  the  hearts 
of  the  French  people  as  on  that  July  day  when 
she  stood  by  the  beds  of  the  cholera  patients.  To 
every  sufferer  she  spoke  a  kind  and  cheering  word. 
To  the  bishop  who  accompanied  her,  she  said  with 
affectionate  solicitude,  "  Take  care  of  your  health, 
monseigneur." 

A  medal  was  struck  to  commemorate  the  visit, 
and  an  address  was  presented  by  the  Municipal 
Council  of  Amiens. 

An  eminent  soldier  expressed  the  admiration  he 
felt  for  this  brave  act,  and  the  Empress  answered  : 
"  General,  that  is  the  way  we  women  go  under  fire." 
The  event  created  an  immense  sensation,  and  for 
months  afterwards,  wherever  the  Empress  travelled, 
the  crowd  hailed  her  with  cries  of  "  Vive  la  Sceur 
de  Charite !  "  "  Vive  l'heroine  d' Amiens !  " 

A  letter  written  by  the  Empress  shows  that  she 
took  a  very  modest  view  of  her  own  achievement. 
"  I  do  not  care  about  all  this  fuss  they  are  making 
over  my  visit  to  Amiens.  There  was  no  courage  or 
merit  in  that.  I  was  only  carrying  out  a  simple 
duty  of  my  position,  and  am  very  glad  to  have  ful- 
filled it.  Don't  say  anything  more  to  me  about 
heroism.  I  did  not  save  a  single  life  ;  I  even  fear 
that  more  than  one  poor  invalid  may  have  been 
disturbed  by  the  preparations  which  they  made  in 
the  wards  to  receive  me.  Let  us  keep  big  words  for 
big  things,  such,  for  example,  as  the  noble  devotion 
of  the  nuns,  who  are  not  content  to  visit  the  patients 
for  an  hour,  but  tend  them  till  health  returns  or 
death  sends  release." 

162 


With  the  Cholera  Patients 

The  Bishop  of  Amiens  made  a  touching  reference 
to  the  Empress's  visit  in  an  address  delivered  during 
the  tour  of  their  Majesties  in  the  north  of  France  in 
1867. 

"  You  called  that  act,  in  gracious  language, 
1  going  under  fire.'  Posterity  will  call  it  treading 
the  path  of  glory,  which  we  bishops  call  the  path  of 
heaven.  The  angel  Raphael  said  to  Tobit,  '  While 
thou  didst  bury  the  dead  thy  charity  rose  to  God, 
and  He  has  sent  me  to  heal  thee.'  While  you, 
madame,  were  comforting  our  poor  cholera  patients 
on  their  bed  of  pain,  your  heroic  charity  rose  to 
heaven,  and  in  the  day  of  trial  God  sent  His  angel 
also  to  save  your  son." 


163 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE  EMPRESS  IN  THE  DECLINING  REIGN  (1867-1869) 

Paris  in  the  Exhibition  year — The  last  season  at  Compiegne — 
Intervention  in  politics — Home  life  of  Eugenie — Her  leadership 
of  fashion — Visit  to  Egypt  in  1869. 

A  LL  roads  led  to  Paris  during  the  Exhibition  of 
A~\  1867.  Napoleon  and  Eugenie  reigned  over 
a  world -capital,  and  the  mightiest  monarchs  of 
Europe  were  received  as  the  nation's  guests.  M. 
de  la  Gorce  remarks  that  middle-aged  and  elderly 
people  preserve  two  vivid  impressions  of  that  epoch 
—  a  feeling  of  dazzling  and  a  feeling  of  terror. 
"  Never  had  the  streets  been  more  animated,  the 
shops  more  sparkling,  the  hotels  fuller,  the  places 
of  amusement  more  crowded.  .  .  .  And  yet  at  times 
there  broke  forth  a  cry  of  distress  like  that  of  a 
woman  who  faints  at  a  festival.  It  was  the  cry  of 
France,  before  which,  in  a  lucid  interval,  a  corner 
of  the  future  had  been  unrolled." 

The  first  distinguished  foreigner  to  visit  Paris  in 
1867  was  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  dined  with  the  Im- 
perial family  and  heard  much  talk  of  the  Exhibition 
plans.  He  must  also  have  heard  disquieting  whispers 
of  war.  Such  rumours  were  like  mysterious  winds, 
rising  in  sudden  gusts,  shaking  men's  minds  for  a 
few  moments,  and  then  dying  away.  Ever  since 
the  victory  of  Sadowa  in  1866,  France  had  been 

164 


The  Exhibition  of  1867 

restlessly  watching  the  aggrandisement  of  Prussia. 
At  the  opening  of  the  Session  on  14  February,  the 
Emperor  said  that  the  development  of  that 
country  had  amazed  the  world.  He  made  the 
significant  remark  that  the  influence  of  a  nation 
depends  entirely  on  the  number  of  men  it  can  put 
under  arms.  Some  of  the  chief  newspapers,  in- 
cluding the  Dtbats,  strongly  combated  this  dangerous 
idea.  The  dispute  on  the  Luxembourg  question 
assumed  during  the  spring  so  threatening  an  aspect 
that  war  seemed  inevitable.  On  n  May  a  treaty 
was  signed  by  which  the  Grand  Duchy  was  neu- 
tralized. Paris  could  now  abandon  itself  freely  to 
the  delights  of  this  unparalleled  season.  It  was 
rather  a  truce  than  a  durable  peace,  for  the  chief 
causes  of  quarrel  remained.  Writing  in  April, 
Merimee  says :  "  There  are  several  disquieting 
symptoms.  I  know  on  very  good  authority  that  a 
new  engine  of  war,  which  has  been  manufactured 
very  mysteriously,  is  held  to  bestow  an  immense 
advantage  on  its  possessor.  .  .  .  The  manufacture 
of  Chassepot  rifles  and  cartridges  is  also  being  pushed 
on  with  great  activity,  but  nobody  really  knows  what 
the  Emperor  intends  to  do.  The  middle  class  look 
upon  war  with  horror,  but  the  masses,  especially 
in  the  eastern  departments,  are  ready  to  eat  the 
Prussians." 

On  1  April  the  Emperor  and  Empress  drove  to 
the  Champ  de  Mars  for  the  opening  of  the  Exhibition. 
They  were  received  with  enthusiasm,  for  Napoleon 
still  enjoyed  a  considerable  prestige  among  the  masses. 
The  working  people  believed,  and  rightly,  that  he 
was  genuinely  anxious  to  improve  their  condition. 

165 


The  Declining  Reign 

The  housing  question  seemed  to  him  one  of  the  most 
pressing  of  social  reforms,  and  he  won  a  prize  at  the 
Exhibition  for  a  model  of  a  workman's  cottage. 
Eight  thousand  season  tickets  had  been  disposed  of 
before  the  opening  day,  and  although  the  building 
on  the  Champ  de  Mars  was  in  April  a  huge  lumber- 
room,  filled  with  packing-cases,  37,000  persons  came 
to  see  the  inaugural  ceremony. 

Owing  to  the  political  anxieties  of  the  hour,  it  had 
been  doubtful  whether  the  opening  could  take  place 
in  April,  and  many  believed  that  the  Exhibition 
would  prove  a  failure.  It  was  not  till  the  end  of 
May  that  the  stream  of  tourists  began  to  flow  swiftly 
into  Paris.  Sunshine  and  summer  verdure  dispelled 
the  memory  of  an  ungenial  spring.  The  first  royal- 
ties to  arrive  were  the  King  and  Queen  of  the 
Belgians,  the  Queen  of  Portugal,  the  Grand  Duchess 
Marie  of  Russia,  and  Prince  Oscar  of  Sweden.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  visited  Paris  in  May.  Curiosity 
was  aroused  by  the  appearance  of  a  Japanese  prince- 
ling, who  was  said  to  be  "  the  son  of  the  Tycoon.' ' 
Who  could  have  believed  that  forty  years  later 
Japan  would  have  taken  her  place  in  the  first  rank 
of  the  Powers  ?  The  Czar  Alexander  II,  accom- 
panied by  his  two  sons  and  his  minister,  Gort- 
schakoff,  arrived  on  1  June.  The  King  of  Prussia 
came  four  days  later,  and  his  reception  was  more 
cordial  than  even  that  of  Alexander.  The  Crown 
Prince  was  with  him,  but  the  curious  eyes  of  the 
Parisian  crowd  were  fixed  on  the  famous  minister, 
Otto  von  Bismarck,  who  occupied  a  place  in  the 
second  carriage.  His  figure,  clad  in  the  white  uni- 
form of  the  Cuirassiers  of  the  Guard,  attracted  more 

166 


Monarchs  in  Paris 

attention  from  the  people  than  any  other  in  the 
Prussian  party. 

Napoleon  and  Eugenie,  as  host  and  hostess,  sur- 
rendered every  waking  moment  to  the  festivities. 
Magnificent  balls  were  given  at  the  Austrian, 
Russian,  and  British  Embassies.  Hardly  a  night  in 
June  was  without  its  glittering  pageant.  A  feverish 
excitement  held  the  capital,  the  mood  of  old-time 
revellers,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we 
die."  Twice  during  the  summer  a  terrible  shock  in- 
terrupted the  whirl  of  joy.  On  Thursday,  6  June, 
as  the  Czar,  with  Napoleon,  and  his  two  sons,  were 
returning  from  the  review  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne, 
he  was  fired  at,  near  the  Grand  Cascade,  by  a  Pole 
named  Berezowski.  An  army  of  police  was  charged 
with  the  safety  of  the  royal  guests,  but  Alexander 
had  a  narrow  escape,  in  spite  of  their  vigilance. 
The  crowd  in  the  Bois  raised  shouts  of ' '  Vive  le  Czar ! ' ' 
"Vive  l'Empereur!"  and  the  would-be  murderer 
was  seized  with  his  weapon  in  his  hand.  Alexander 
and  his  sons  behaved  with  perfect  calmness,  and 
were  present  that  night  at  the  ball  given  by  the 
Russian  Ambassador.  The  incident  had  a  sobering 
effect  on  the  public  mind,  for  it  showed  on  what  un- 
certain tenure  the  great  ones  of  the  earth  hold  their 
power.  The  assassin's  shots  had  been  heard  once 
more  in  Paris.  Behind  the  lights  and  the  music  and 
the  processions  of  gaily  clad  women,  there  had 
moved  among  the  dark  avenues  of  the  Bois  this 
Polish  refugee  with  murder  in  his  heart.  What  if  a 
monarch  were  killed  in  Paris  in  the  year  of  inter- 
national amity  ! 

Eugenie,  during  this  alarming  scene,  was  driving 

167 


The  Declining  Reign 

home  by  the  side  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  Wilhelm 
had  won  her  sympathy  by  his  kindness  to  the  Prince 
Imperial,  who  was  recovering  from  serious  illness. 
Little  did  she  imagine  as  he  drew  the  fragile  child 
into  his  arms,  that  he  was  destined,  three  years 
later,  to  dispossess  the  heir  of  the  Bonapartes. 

The  historian  reminds  us  that  this  review  was  the 
last  grand  display  of  the  unconquered  French  army. 
"  There  were  men  in  these  ranks  who  had  climbed 
the  slopes  of  the  Mamelon,  and  the  bastion  of  the 
Malakoff,  who  had  contested  foot  by  foot  the  banks 
of  the  Naviglio  Grande,  who  had  sung  the  Te  Detent 
in  the  cathedral  of  Peking  and  had  conquered  one 
by  one  the  squares  of  Puebla*  Among  these  flags 
some  had  been  decorated  for  deeds  of  war,  an  illus- 
trious honour  of  which  the  whole  regiment  was 
proud.  No  one  doubted  that  these  standards  must 
remain  for  ever  without  spot  or  stain.  Often,  on 
days  of  military  solemnity,  such  a  spectacle  had 
been  witnessed.  The  hour  was  coming  when  it 
would  not  be  seen  any  more,  and  it  was  fitting  that 
France  should  fix  before  her  eyes  this  image,  as  of 
some  beloved  being  who  is  about  to  depart  for  ever." 

It  was  but  for  a  moment  that  the  rejoicings  were 
interrupted.  On  8  June,  Baron  Haussmann,  at 
the  Hotel  de  Ville,  gave  a  ball  which  cost  £30,000. 
On  the  10th  there  was  a  party  at  the  Tuileries,  and 
on  the  12th  at  the  Prussian  Embassy.  The  Empress 
sat  on  a  throne  watching  the  dances,  with  Napoleon 
on  her  right  and  the  King  of  Prussia  on  her  left. 
Outside  in  the  garden  a  Bier-Halle  had  been  arranged, 
and  the  officers  of  the  suite  sat  drinking  and  smoking 
till  the  early  summer  dawn  broke  over  the  city. 

168 


"The  Captains  and  the  Kings  Depart" 

Regrets  were  expressed  that  the  jovial  Princess 
Metternich  had  been  absent  from  the  Prussian  ball, 
but,  apart  from  any  lingering  ill-will  that  might  have 
been  left  from  the  war  of  1866,  this  was  a  moment 
of  profoundest  gloom  for  Austria.  The  brother  of 
the  reigning  Emperor  was  a  prisoner  at  Queretaro, 
holding  his  life  at  the  mercy  of  Juarez. 

The  Empress  had  undoubtedly  used  her  influence 
in  favour  of  the  Mexican  expedition  which  ended  so 
disastrously.  General  Du  Barail  says  that  she  treated 
the  returning  officers  with  neglect,  because  they 
could  give  her  no  good  news  of  clerical  prospects  in 
the  Empire  of  Maximilian.  "  This  being  so,  we 
could  not  hope  to  please  her.  She  did  not  grant  us 
the  honour  of  an  audience,  and  we  dared  not  ask 
for  it." 

On  14  June  King  William  of  Prussia  departed  from 
Paris.  There  must  have  been  some  who  recog- 
nized, amid  the  intoxication  of  that  golden  June, 
signs  such  as  those  which  warned  night-watchers  in 
the  last  hours  of  Pompeii.  "  In  that  abyss,"  said 
the  Saga  of  Vesuvius,  "  I  have  of  late  marked  a  red 
and  dull  stream  creep  slowly,  slowly  on,  and  heard 
many  and  mighty  sounds  hissing  and  roaring 
through  the  gloom.  But  last  night,  as  I  looked 
thereon,  behold  the  stream  was  no  longer  dull,  but 
intensely  and  fiercely  luminous.  ...  I  heard,  all  the 
night,  the  rock  shake  and  tremble  ;  and  though  the 
air  was  heavy  and  still,  there  were  the  hissing  of 
pent  winds  and  the  grinding  as  of  wheels  beneath 
the  ground.  So  when  I  rose  this  morning,  at  the 
very  birth  of  dawn,  I  looked  again  down  the  abyss, 
and  I  saw  vast  fragments  of  stone  borne  black  and 

169 


The  Declining  Reign 

floatingly  over  the  lurid  stream,  and  the  stream 
itself  was  broader,  fiercer,  redder  than  the  night 
before." 

A  deep  gloom  descended  on  Paris  when  the  ter- 
rible news  of  the  execution  of  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian of  Mexico  arrived  at  the  end  of  June.  The 
ist  of  July  had  been  fixed  for  the  crowning  event  of 
the  Exhibition — the  distribution  of  prizes  by  the 
Emperor.  It  was  too  late  to  countermand  the  in- 
vitations, and  doubt  was  thrown  upon  the  tidings, 
cablegrams  passing  repeatedly  between  the  Quai 
d'Orsay  and  Washington.  The  chief  royal  person- 
age in  Paris  at  the  moment  was  the  Sultan  Abdul 
Aziz,  and  he  was  almost  neglected  in  the  consterna- 
tion with  which  the  definite  news  of  Maximilian's 
death  was  received.  Discredit  fell  upon  the  Em- 
peror on  account  of  the  Mexican  expedition.  At 
the  opening  of  the  Session  of  1867  the  failure  of  the 
ambitious  project  had  been  frankly  admitted,  and 
now  the  death  of  the  unfortunate  Archduke  was 
loss  upon  loss.  Europe  recognized  that  he  had  been 
Napoleon's  tool ;  France  blamed  the  Emperor  for 
the  sacrifice  of  six  thousand  gallant  sons.  The 
War  Minister  said  one  day  in  the  chamber:  "Our 
soldiers  do  not  count  their  enemies  before  they  go 
into  battle,  and  after  the  battle  they  do  not  count 
their  dead."  "  No,"  replied  the  aged  Berryer, 
"  our  soldiers  do  not  count  their  dead,  but  here  in 
France  there  are  mothers,  daughters,  and  wives  who 
have  counted  them." 

Sympathy  with  the  bereaved  House  of  Hapsburg 
and  an  earnest  desire  for  an  Austrian  alliance  took 
Napoleon  and  Eugenie  to  Salzburg  in  August,  for 

170 


France  and  Austria 

a  meeting  with  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  the 
Empress  Elizabeth.  Although  the  King  of  Prussia 
had  sent  a  letter  overflowing  with  thanks  for  the 
hospitable  entertainment  he  had  received  in  Paris, 
it  was  evident  that  no  solid  friendship  could  be  es- 
tablished between  the  great  rival  nations  of  the 
Continent,  while  the  Czar  had  left  Paris  in  a  mood 
of  irritation  and  mistrust.  The  Empress  Elizabeth, 
who  admired  the  beauty  and  the  many  charming 
qualities  of  Napoleon's  consort,  begged  for  a  private 
interview  with  Eugenie  at  some  Austrian  health 
resort. 

The  Austrian  statesman,  Count  von  Beust,  tells 
us  in  his  memoirs  that  he  advised  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph  not  to  go  to  Paris  for  the  Exhibition 
unless  Napoleon  first  visited  him.  It  was  thought 
desirable  in  Vienna  that  the  Emperor  should  follow 
the  example  of  the  Czar  and  the  King  of  Prussia, 
but  the  desertion  of  his  brother  Maximilian  in  Mexico 
had  left  a  bad  impression,  and  it  was  felt  that 
advances  should  be  made  from  the  French  side. 
'  The  scene  at  Salzburg,"  says  Count  von  Beust, 
1  was  most  picturesque.  .  .  .  The  day  of  the  meeting 
was  the  18th  of  August,  the  Emperor's  birthday. 
A  telegram  arrived  early  in  the  morning  from  Berlin, 
which  ended  with  the  words,  '  Give  my  kind  regards 
to  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  the  French  ' — 
a  message  which  I  remembered  more  than  once  in 
later  years."  Count  von  Beust  adds  that  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Sovereigns  was  unconstrained,  almost 
hearty.  "  The  Empress  Eugenie  astonished  and 
delighted  every  one  by  the  graceful  and  yet  dignified 
manner  in  which  she  held  the  receptions,  and  it  was 

171 


The  Declining  Reign 

perhaps  not  without  calculation  that  she  arrived  in 
an  extremely  simple  travelling  costume,  and  that 
throughout  the  visit  she  appeared  in  very  un- 
ostentatious toilettes,  being  obviously  desirous  of 
yielding  the  palm  of  beauty  to  the  Empress  Eliza- 
beth. Napoleon,  whom  I  had  seen  a  year  before  in 
utter  prostration  of  mind  and  body,  was  active  and 
cheerful,  and  showed  no  signs  of  illness/' 

The  meeting  passed  off  without  friction ;  the 
victor  of  Magenta  and  Solferino  held  many  intimate 
talks  with  the  young  Emperor,  whom  he  had  not 
seen  since  Villafranca,  and  in  October  Francis  Jo- 
seph was  his  guest  in  Paris.  But  the  negotiations 
ended  in  talk.  No  European  Power  sincerely  de- 
sired Napoleon's  friendship,  or  cared  to  embark  on 
the  sea  of  his  incalculable  policies.  "He  was  never 
more  lonely  than  in  that  year  when  he  was  accom- 
panied by  a  train  of  kings." 

After  returning  from  Salzburg,  Napoleon  and 
Eugenie  made  a  tour  in  the  north  of  France.  The 
receptions  in  the  towns  were  as  cordial  as  ever. 
"  Viollet-le-Duc,"  writes  Merimee,  "  who  accom- 
panied their  Majesties  on  their  journey  to  Lille, 
Dunkerque,  Amiens,  etc.,  says  that  he  has  never 
witnessed  such  enthusiasm,  not  to  say  frenzy." 
Yet  the  forced  comfort  of  the  Emperor's  replies  to 
municipal  addresses  cannot  blind  us  to  his  under- 
lying depression.  A  melancholy  which  popular 
ovations  could  not  dispel  hung  over  his  spirit  and 
communicated  itself  to  his  household.  "  They  feared 
as  they  entered  into  the  cloud." 

There  was  little  change  in  the  Court  routine  during 
this  period  of  imperceptible  decay.     Ernest  Pinard, 

172 


The  Last  "  Compiegnes " 

who  was  Home  Minister  towards  the  end  of  the  reign, 
describes  the  receptions  he  attended  at  Compiegne 
in  1866  and  1868,  and  remarks  that  they  were 
brilliant  and  crowded.  "  Time  slipped  away  as  in 
those  great  baronial  castles  where  hunting-parties 
gather  in  the  autumn.  At  dinner  each  guest  had  a 
place  officially  assigned  according  to  his  office  or  his 
social  rank.  At  dSjeuner  we  might  sit  where  we 
pleased,  only  that  the  chamberlain  on  duty  selected 
the  four  persons  who  were  to  sit  next  the  Emperor 
and  Empress.  These  privileged  luncheon  guests 
were  usually  birds  of  passage,  officers  of  the  garri- 
son, or  functionaries  who  were  spending  only  one 
day  at  the  castle,  and  whom  the  Sovereigns  wished 
to  know  and  honour.  At  five  o'clock  came  the 
Empress's  tea,  at  which  the  Emperor  was  occasion- 
ally present.  Viollet-le-Duc  appeared  every  day  at 
this  meal.  He  spent  months  at  Compiegne  and 
Pierrefonds,  and  was  the  best  cicerone  for  their  Ma- 
jesties' guests." 

One  of  the  entertainments  of  Compiegne  was  the 
weekly  visit  from  the  actors  of  the  Comedie  Fran- 
caise,  who  gave  a  command  performance  to  which 
the  leading  families  in  the  neighbourhood  were  in- 
vited. 

Among  the  great  personages  whom  he  met  at  Com- 
piegne, M.  Pinard  was  particularly  impressed  with 
the  Italian  Ambassador,  Chevalier  Nigra,  who,  with 
Prince  Metternich,  helped  the  Empress  to  escape  on 
the  fateful  Fourth  of  September.  Nigra  was  a  hard 
worker  in  the  morning,  and  a  social  butterfly  in  the 
evening.  He  had  some  poetical  talent,  and  used  to 
read  his  verses  aloud  at  the  Empress's  tea-parties. 

'73 


The  Declining  Reign 

Prince  Metternich  is  described  by  Pinard  as  a  less 
clever  diplomatist,  but  a  more  reliable  friend  than 
Nigra.  The  Countess  of  Pourtales  was  at  that  time 
the  queen  of  fashion.  M.  Pinard  takes  a  favourable 
view  of  the  character  of  Princess  Metternich,  though 
he  admits  that  she  was  called  "  la  reine  des  coco- 
dettes."  Louis  Pasteur  was  an  honoured  guest  at 
one  of  the  later  "  Compiegnes."  He  described  his 
talk  with  the  Empress  as  "  very  lively,  very  broken, 
always  turning  towards  the  infinitely  little — epi- 
demic diseases,  experiments  on  animals,  infusoria, 
the  sicknesses  of  wine,"  Finding  that  both  their 
Majesties  wished  to  learn  more  about  science,  Pasteur 
sent  for  his  microscope  and  gave  them  a  lesson  on 
"  Vins  Malades."  The  tall  lacqueys  in  their  braided 
liveries  smiled  sardonically,  he  says,  as  they  saw  him 
carrying  off  a  basket  of  bottles  to  his  room.  The 
Empress  helped  him  with  his  experiment  before  the 
Court.  "  She  carried  the  microscope  gaily,  and  was 
pleased,  she  said,  to  be  my  laboratory  assistant." 
At  Compiegne  Dr.  Longet  lectured  on  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood,  and  Leverrier  on  the  plurality  of 
the  worlds.  Imbert  de  Saint-Amand  remembers  that 
when  this  discoverer  of  a  planet  demonstrated  that 
our  world  is  but  a  barely  perceptible  atom  in  the 
immensity  of  the  universe,  the  Emperor  said  slowly, 
in  a  melancholy  voice,  "  Great  God !  what  petty 
things  we  are  !  " 

Eugenie  came  often  to  the  Cabinet  Councils  after 
her  second  Regency,  and  took  her  seat  beside  the 
Emperor.  Usually  she  listened  in  silence  to  the  dis- 
cussions, though  if  the  subject  happened  to  interest 
her  she  would  speak  out  with  frankness.     "  She  ad- 

174 


The  Empress  in  Politics 

dressed  us  at  first  very  calmly,"  says  M.  Pinard, 
"  but  almost  immediately  her  language  became  eager, 
and  often  figurative.  We  realized  that  there  was  in 
her  an  exuberance  of  life,  contrasting  with  the  sober 
language  and  meditative  countenance  of  the  Em- 
peror." 

The  growing  influence  of  Eugenie  in  politics 
offended  some  of  her  husband's  old  friends.  She 
was  suspected  of  preparing  for  a  future  in  which 
Napoleon  would  have  little  part.  If  his  increasing 
infirmities  necessitated  an  early  retirement  from 
public  life,  Eugenie,  it  was  thought,  might  naturally 
expect  to  hold  the  Regency  until  the  majority  of 
her  son.  Physically  and  morally  the  Emperor  was 
a  worn-out  man,  but  she  was  still  in  her  prime, 
and  her  marvellous  beauty  was  scarcely  dimmed  by 
years.  All  her  ambition  was  now  concentrated  on 
the  Prince  Imperial.  Sometimes  at  the  Council 
Board  she  embarrassed  the  Ministers  by  expressing 
opinions  which  were  directly  opposed  to  her  hus- 
band's. M.  de  Persigny  sent  a  letter  to  Napoleon 
in  which  he  remonstrated  earnestly  against  this 
feminine  interference,  and,  as  ill-luck  would  have 
it,  the  letter  was  opened  by  the  Empress.  Cool- 
headed  statesmen  must  have  been  tried  by  her 
outbursts  of  petulant  feeling,  her  sudden  ardours 
and  unexpected  chills.  "  Moderation  above  all  was 
lacking  in  her  temperament,  and  the  noble  imagina- 
tive flights  of  the  generous  woman  alternated  with 
the  passionate  outbursts  of  the  angry  child." 

Intensely  painful  for  the  Empress  was  an  incident 
which  took  place  in  August,  1868,  at  the  prize-giving 
of  the  Lyc6e  Bonaparte.     The  Prince  Imperial  had 

'75 


The  Declining  Reign 

come  from  Fontainebleau  to  present  the  prizes.  He 
was  coldly  received,  while  pupils  of  the  names  of 
Cavaignac  and  Pelletan  were  loudly  cheered.  The 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction  was  hissed  when,  in 
the  course  of  his  speech,  he  paid  a  compliment  to  the 
Prince.  The  poor  boy  maintained  his  composure  till 
he  got  back  to  the  Tuileries,  and  then  his  firmness 
gave  way  and  he  burst  into  tears.  Next  day,  when 
he  returned  to  Fontainebleau,  his  mother  wept 
bitterly  as  she  clasped  him  in  her  arms.  "  My  poor 
little  boy  !  "  she  said  several  times  between  her  sobs. 
The  incident  was  but  one  of  many  proofs  that  the 
spirit  of  disloyalty  was  spreading  fast. 

Once  only  in  public  Napoleon  hinted  to  his  consort 
that  she  was  meddling  too  much  in  politics.  In  the 
Life  of  Cardinal  de  Bonnechose,  by  Bishop  Besson, 
we  read  that  in  response  to  a  compliment  paid  to 
the  Empress  by  the  new  Prince  of  the  Church,  Napo- 
leon said,  "  It  is  the  happy  lot  of  woman  to  remain 
apart  from  questions  of  State  and  the  cold  calcula- 
tions of  politics,  and  to  give  herself  altogether,  with 
the  generous  inspiration  of  her  soul,  to  the  consola- 
tion of  the  suffering  and  the  unfortunate." 

Perhaps  the  best  proof  of  the  Empress's  influence 
in  politics  during  the  later  Empire  is  the  account  by 
Emile  Ollivier  of  his  interviews  at  the  Tuileries  in 
January,  1867.  To  the  Emperor  he  explained  at 
great  length  the  liberal  measures  which  in  his  opinion 
the  nation  required.  Napoleon  asked  him  to  speak 
with  his  wife.  "  I  must  do  something  resolute  and 
liberal,"  he  said.  "  My  only  doubt  is  whether  this 
is  the  time.  Should  I  not  seem  to  be  seeking  an 
excuse  for  my  failures  in  Mexico  and  Germany  ?  " 

176 


Emile  Ollivier  and  the  Empress 

Ollivier  replied  that  liberal  measures  would  have  a 
tendency  to  calm  public  feeling.  The  Emperor  said, 
"  I  want  to  do  the  best.  If  I  thought  I  had  ceased 
to  be  useful  to  this  country  I  should  not  hesitate  to 
leave  it."  As  had  been  expected,  the  Empress 
thought  the  time  had  not  come  for  concessions. 

On  the  Military  Law  she  was  sympathetic  and 
even  eager.  "  Speaking,"  says  Ollivier,  "  with  a 
very  accurate  knowledge  of  the  subject  and  genuine 
eloquence,  she  explained  to  me  that  reform  had  been 
pressing  since  1859,  and,  in  ner  opinion,  had  been 
too  long  delayed.1' 

From  her  experience  as  Regent  Eugenie  drew  an 
argument.  "  My  uncle  Jerome,"  she  said,  "  wished 
at  that  time  that  I  should  sign  a  decree  mobilizing 
300,000  of  the  National  Guard,  that  we  might  be 
prepared  for  an  attack  from  the  direction  of  the 
Rhine.  Although  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the 
Ministers  was  against  me,  I  did  not  wish  to  sign  in 
face  of  Europe  such  a  confession  of  our  military 
helplessness.  Then  my  uncle  rose  and  said  to  me, 
'  My  niece,  you  are  ruining  France*  You  are  going 
to  expose  us  to  invasion.'  '  However  that  may  be, 
Uncle,  I  shall  not  act  like  Marie  Louise.  I  shall 
never  fly  in  face  of  the  enemy.1  I  wrote  to  the 
Emperor,  and  the  Peace  of  Villafranca  was  signed. 
We  must  never  again  let  ourselves  be  found  in 
such  a  position.  The  Emperor  is  giving  one  more 
proof  of  his  devotion  to  France  by  accepting  diffi- 
culties in  the  present  in  order  to  make  the  future 
safe." 

M.  Rouher,  commonly  known  as  the  M  Vice- 
Empereur,"  according  to  Emile  Ollivier,  had  won 

N  177 


The  Declining  Reign 

Eugenie's  confidence  by  the  ceaseless  attentions, 
more  flattering  than  compliments,  with  which  he 
surrounded  her.  He  seemed  to  attach  great  import- 
ance to  her  opinion,  hastened  to  consult  her  and  to 
give  her  the  latest  information.  He  lent  himself 
readily  to  her  wishes,  entered  into  her  plans,  and 
performed,  devotedly,  services  of  every  kind.  "  Not- 
withstanding her  attachment  to  her  husband,  the 
Empress  could  not  ignore  the  fact  that  she  might 
some  day  be  called  to  the  Regency.  If  the  worst 
were  to  happen,  no  one  seemed  to  her  a  statesman 
of  sufficient  strength  to  take  the  place  of  Rouher  and 
help  her  to  carry  out  her  difficult  task.  The  support 
of  the  Sovereign,"  adds  Ollivier,  "  was  much  more 
effective  than  that  of  her  husband.  She  was  no 
longer  an  empty-minded  young  woman,  captivated 
by  pleasure,  absorbed  in  the  happiness  of  living  in  a 
world  of  homage.  She  was  an  ambitious,  experi- 
enced woman,  with  a  taste  for  affairs,  a  natural 
capacity  for  understanding  and  mastering  them, 
eloquence  in  expounding  and  discussing  them." 
While  the  Emperor's  will  grew  feebler,  hers  was 
always  strong. 

We  have  seen  the  Empress  opening  a  private  letter 
intended  for  her  husband,  and  this  incident,  recorded 
by  Persigny,  shows  how  minutely  she  watched  the 
daily  trend  of  politics.  In  her  sitting-room  at  the 
Tuileries  she  collected  and  arranged  State  papers. 
Of  these  papers  in  the  Tuileries  only  a  small  selection 
were  discovered  and  printed.  Some  were  destroyed, 
others  carried  by  the  Empress  to  England.  Madame 
Carette  says  that  the  ordering  of  these  documents 

178 


Home  Life  of  the  Empress 

was  one  of  her  mistress's  chief  occupations.  Secre- 
taries were  constantly  employed  in  filing  and  classify- 
ing them,  and  a  huge  cupboard  was  set  apart  for 
their  preservation. 

This  "  Cabinet  de  l'lmperatrice,''  which  opened 
out  of  the  blue  drawing-room,  where  Her  Majesty 
received  her  guests,  was  very  cosily  furnished  in  the 
English  style,  and  here  Eugenie  kept  her  treasured 
relics,  some  of  which  belonged  to  her  girlhood's  days. 
Between  the  two  windows  was  a  glass  case,  in  which 
were  the  hat  which  the  Emperor  wore  on  the  night 
of  Orsini's  crime,  the  coral  and  the  toys  of  the  Prince 
Imperial,  and  precious  trifles  which  had  belonged  to 
the  Duchess  of  Alba.  In  this  room  was  the  full- 
length  portrait  of  Napoleon  III,  by  Cabanel,  which 
the  Empress  considered  the  most  life-like  painting 
of  him.  Here  also  were  the  counterfeit  presentments 
of  the  two  women  whom  Eugenie  had  most  dearly 
loved — her  dead  sister  and  the  young  Princess  Anna 
Murat. 

The  Empress  had  her  favourite  armchair  near  the 
fire,  with  a  sloping  seat  to  serve  as  footstool.  A 
screen  of  green  silk  protected  her  from  the  heat.  A 
little  table  of  black  wood,  made  with  shelves,  stood 
at  her  left  hand,  and  on  it  were  her  blotting-book, 
inkstand,  and  pen-tray.  She  wrote  with  a  quill  pen, 
in  a  bold  and  rapid  script.  The  bookcases  in  these 
apartments  contained  the  Empress's  favourite  works 
in  several  languages.  She  could  speak  and  read 
English  and  Italian,  as  well  as  French  and  Spanish. 
Paint-boxes  and  drawing  materials,  displayed  on  a 
round  table,  reminded  visitors  that  the  lady  of  the 
palace  was  not  without  artistic  talent.     Like  Queen 

'79 


7'he  Declining  Reign 

Victoria,  she  amused  herself  when  in  the  country 
by  making  water-colour  sketches  of  scenery.  Every- 
where in  the  Empress's  own  rooms,  scattered  on 
mantelpieces  and  tables,  were  photographs  and 
miniatures  of  the  Prince  Imperial,  representing  him 
at  different  ages.  Here,  too,  might  be  seen  a  portrait 
of  the  Comte  de  Montijo,  that  gallant  soldier  whose 
fatherly  fondness  she  could  recall  from  the  dim 
background  of  memory.  Though  he  was  represented 
with  the  well-known  band  of  black  silk  over  his  in- 
jured eye,  visitors  discovered  a  likeness  to  his  lovely 
daughter  in  his  fine  aristocratic  features,  clear  com- 
plexion, and  golden  hair. 

Next  to  the  "  Cabinet  de  Travail "  was  an  apart- 
ment which  had  no  window,  and  from  which  opened 
a  little  staircase  going  down  to  the  private  rooms  of 
the  Emperor.  Here  in  this  half-darkened  chamber, 
where  a  hanging  lamp  shed  uncertain  rays,  stood  the 
immense  cupboard  which  contained  the  secrets  of 
the  reign. 

Beyond  were  the  dressing-room  and  bed-chamber 
of  the  Empress.  The  former  was  lined  with  cheval- 
glasses  and  contained  a  large  toilet-table,  covered 
with  lace  over  blue  silk.  The  Empress's  toilet-set 
was  richly  inlaid  with  enamel,  and  had  belonged  to 
Queen  Hortense.  On  the  upper  storey  were  the  oaken 
wardrobes  which  held  Eugenie's  innumerable  dresses, 
hats,  and  mantles,  and  by  means  of  a  lift  the  robe 
that  might  be  wanted  for  the  day  was  let  down  to 
her  maids.  The  stair  which  led  to  the  attics  was  so 
narrow  and  dark  that  the  rich  dresses  must  have 
been  injured  by  continual  carrying  up  and  down, 
and  this  clever  idea  of  the  lift  and  the  speaking-tube 

1 80 


The  Leader  of  Fashion 

attached  to  it  enabled  the  royal  lady  to  make  her 
toilet  quickly. 

A  small  oratory  was  placed  between  the  dressing- 
room  and  bedroom.  It  was  there  that  the  Abbe 
Deguerry  prepared  the  Prince  Imperial  for  his  first 
communion,  and  there  the  Empress  heard  Mass  for 
the  last  time  at  the  Tuileries  in  September,  1870. 

The  bed-chamber  was  a  spacious  room,  in  which 
the  bed,  richly  draped  with  tapestry,  was  placed  on 
a  platform.  Here  was  kept  the  golden  rose  given 
by  the  Pope  in  1856,  and  at  the  head  of  the  bed,  as 
each  Palm  Sunday  came  round,  Eugenie  fastened  a 
palm-branch  sent  her  by  His  Holiness.  She  cared 
little  for  this  magnificent  State  room,  with  its  gilded 
cornices  and  allegorical  paintings,  and  never  at- 
tempted to  introduce  into  it  that  air  of  homely  com- 
fort which  made  the  charm  of  her  private  apart- 
ments. 

From  the  earliest  years  of  her  reign  Eugenie  was 
the  leader  of  the  world  of  dress.  The  great  ladies 
of  the  Faubourg  Saint-Germain,  who  affected  to  des- 
pise her  birth  and  to  ignore  her  Court,  were  swept 
away  like  all  others  on  the  stream  of  fashion.  As 
Josephine's  high-waisted  frocks  were  copied  by  the 
wives  of  her  husband's  worst  enemies,  Eugenie's 
crinolines  were  adopted  by  royal  ladies  who  would 
have  scorned  to  seek  her  friendship,  In  Paris  every 
smart  woman  tried  to  walk  and  hold  her  head  like 
the  Empress,  The  undulating  motion  of  her  figure, 
the  dreamy  glance  of  her  eyes,  the  warm,  golden  tints 
of  her  hair,  were  all  imitated.  About  1857  she  had 
a  fancy  for  artificial  flowers,  and  immediately  a 
society  for  making  them  was  established  in  Paris. 

181 


The  Declining  Reign 

That  was  the  year  in  which  she  received  the  Persian 
Ambassadors.  "  Marie  Antoinette  herself/'  says 
M.  Bouchot,  "  could  not  have  looked  more  digni- 
fied. There  was  a  crown  of  flowers  on  her  waving 
hair,  and  from  her  shoulders  fell  a  heavy  mantle." 

It  was  Eugenie's  custom  to  wear  five  gold  rings, 
each  of  which  marked  some  important  event  in  her 
life.  Her  silken  belt  was  secured  with  a  gold  clasp 
wrought  with  the  letters  of  her  name. 

The  chief  Paris  dressmakers  at  the  time  of  her 
marriage  were  Vignon  and  Palmyre.  The  reign  of 
Worth  dates  from  the  years  following  the  Italian 
war,  and  it  was  Princess  Metternich  who  made  him 
the  fashion.  His  business  was  carried  on  at  first  in 
a  little  street  near  the  Bourse.  A  constant  exchange 
of  ideas  went  on  between  M.  Worth  and  the  Austrian 
Ambassadress,  and  the  Princess  found  time,  amid 
her  many  social  engagements,  to  spend  long  mornings 
with  the  clever  ladies'  tailor,  planning,  remodelling, 
and  cutting  out.  Leferriere  also  became  fashionable 
after  i860,  and  to  him  were  committed  the  less 
elaborate  gowns  worn  by  the  Empress,  her  travelling 
and  morning  costumes,  which  were  very  simple  and 
perfectly  cut,  For  morning  wear  in  the  house  the 
Empress  preferred  dresses  of  soft,  clinging  woollen 
stuffs.  Her  favourite  colours  were  dark  blue,  red, 
and  black.  For  the  evening  she  looked  her  best  in 
plainly  cut  black  velvet  robes,  and  for  quiet  home 
dinners  black  velvet  or  white  satin  was  her  frequent 
choice. 

The  celebrity  of  Virot  as  a  milliner  and  of  Leroy 
as  a  coiffeur  belongs  to  the  middle  years  of  the  Em- 
pire.    It  was  Leroy  who  persuaded  the  Empress  to- 

182 


Fashions  of  the  Exhibition  Year 

adopt  the  corkscrew  curls  which  we  see  in  so  many 
of  her  pictures.  Madame  Virot  abolished  the  hideous 
"  bavolet,"  or  trimming  which  fell  from  the  back 
of  the  hair  and  hid  the  neck.  For  mantles  the 
Empress  preferred  Madame  Felicie,  and  many  hats 
came  from  Lebel.  It  was  unfortunate,  perhaps, 
that  the  modes  during  most  of  the  Empire  were  un- 
becoming to  all  but  the  loveliest  women.  The 
crinoline  lasted  nearly  a  decade,  and  became  so 
essential  a  part  of  female  attire  that  at  fancy  dress 
balls  one  might  see  the  goddesses  of  Olympus  and 
Greek  heroines  like  Medea  encumbered  with  these 
huge  swelling  skirts.  The  photographs  of  1867 
seem  to  our  very  different  ideas  to  reflect  little  credit 
either  on  the  genius  of  Worth  or  of  his  clever  artistic 
patroness,  "  Madame  Chiffon."  One  that  lies  be- 
fore me,  marked  "  latest  Parisian  fashion,"  shows  a 
lady  of  1867  in  walking-dress.  Over  a  widely 
striped  petticoat  the  skirt  is  caught  up  clumsily  at 
the  back  and  front,  and  trimmings  of  jet  or  gimp 
are  thickly  laid  on.  A  small,  hard  pork-pie 
hat  of  black  velvet  is  well  pressed  down  on  the  fore- 
head, and  broad  ribbons  stream  from  the  neck. 
Surely  the  Empress  Eugenie  could  never  have 
really  cared  for  these  vulgar,  inartistic  styles.  Dr. 
Evans,  in  his  recent  memoirs,  tells  us  that  the  Em- 
press was  not,  as  some  think,  recklessly  extravagant 
in  her  dress  expenditure.  She  said  to  him  that  very 
few  of  the  dresses  worn  during  her  seventeen  years 
at  the  Tuileries  had  cost  over  fifteen  hundred 
francs,  while  the  majority  were  less  expensive.  In 
a  recent  letter  the  Empress  named  £40  as  the 
outside   limit   of  price   for  her  gowns,     Her  most 

183 


The  Declining  Reign 

wasteful   custom   was    that    of    wearing    her    tiny- 
white  satin  evening   shoes  once,   and  no    oftener 
They    were    sent    afterwards    to   her   girls'  home, 
where  they  were  put  on  by  the  pupils  at  their  first 
communion. 

At  the  beginning  of  each  new  season  the  Empress 
interviewed  her  chief  dressmakers  and  milliners. 
Twice  a  year  she  went  carefully  through  her 
wardrobe  and  presented  to  her  ladies-in-waiting  all 
the  garments  she  could  spare.  Many  of  her  hand- 
some gowns  were  sold,  Madame  Carette  says,  to 
American  purchasers.  The  profits  from  these  sales 
were  no  trifling  perquisite  for  the  household. 

Among  minor  useful  fashions  which  the  Empress 
introduced  were  the  fringe-net,  the  en-tout-cas,  and 
the  coloured  under-petticoat. 

An  ingenious  statistician  drew  up  an  estimate  of 
the  money  spent  on  balls  and  soirees  dansantes  in 
Paris  during  the  carnival  of  1864  between  Twelfth 
Night  and  Shrove  Tuesday  inclusive.  In  that 
period  130  balls  were  given  in  Paris,  and  the  account 
as  reckoned  by  him  stood  as  follows  : — 

Francs. 


Coach  hire 

•                         •                         ■ 

2,700,000 

Gloves 

•                                  a 

4,680,000 

Dresses 

•                                   • 

29,250,000 

Hairdressing 

•                                                •                                                4 

1,800,000 

Satin  shoes 

•                               •                               i 

2,304,000 

Bouquets 

•                               • 

1,800,000 

Jewellery,  knick-knacks,  etc. 

.     17,500,000 

Total     . 

60,034,000 

184 


EMPRESS      EUGENIE      IN      ROBES     OF     STATE. 


The  Empress  visits  the  East 

One  last  magnificent  pageant — the  opening  of  the 
Suez  Canal — placed  the  Empress  side  by  side  with 
the  Sovereigns  of  Europe.  In  August,  1869,  she 
visited  Corsica  with  the  Prince  Imperial.  It  was 
suspected  in  Paris  that  the  journey  was  undertaken 
partly  to  reassure  the  public  about  the  state  of  the 
Emperor's  health.  "  It  would  not  be  easy,"  wrote 
M.  Doudan  at  the  time,  "  for  her  to  give  up  her 
Eastern  tour.  The  Sultan,  I  hear,  has  had  a  palace 
built  for  her,  and  everywhere  on  the  route  she  is 
expected.  I  think  she  is  doing  her  duty  as  a  good 
wife,  and  acting  in  the  family  interest,  but  it  is 
probable  that  she  would  not  be  sorry  to  win  hearts 
in  view  of  certain  contingencies.  Doubtless  the 
state  of  her  mind  is  very  confused  and  changeable, 
and  she  changes  her  views,  her  plans,  her  purposes, 
as  she  changes  her  gowns,  according  to  the  fashion 
and  the  season  and  her  fancy.  Perhaps  one  ought 
to  have  been  born  a  royalty  in  order  to  play  the  part 
of  queen  or  regent.  A  man  may  learn  this  rough 
trade  ;  for  a  woman  it  is  impossible.  If  Catherine 
II  had  only  been  a  little  German  baroness  to  begin 
with,  she  would  never  have  become  the  Semiramis 
of  the  North." 

M.  Doudan  also  writes  :  "I  think  that  when  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  made  her  tour  to  Palestine  she  was 
a  widow  or  a  single  woman ;  she  did  not  leave 
behind  her  a  suffering,  anxious,  and  humiliated 
husband." 

In  October,  1869,  accompanied  by  her  young 
nieces,  the  daughters  of  the  Duchess  of  Alba,  the 
Empress  sailed  in  the  Imperial  yacht  UAiglc  for  the 
opening   of   the   Suez   Canal.     It   was   the   earnest 

185 


The  Declining  Reign 

desire  of  her  cousin,  M.  de  Lesseps,  that  she  should 
grace  the  ceremony  with  her  presence,  but  in  Paris 
her  voyage  was  not  popular*  It  was  rumoured  that 
the  Emperor  had  borrowed  ten  million  francs  from 
English  bankers  to  pay  her  expenses.  The  real  sum 
was  nearer  700,000  francs,  and  this  was  paid  from 
the  civil  list.  The  first  resting-place  on  the  voyage 
was  Venice,  where  there  were  serenades,  excursions 
by  gondola,  illuminations,  and  a  cordial  welcome 
from  the  royal  family  of  Italy.  The  enthusiasm  of 
the  popular  welcome  left  little  time  for  private  sight- 
seeing, and  Merim6e  writes  that  only  one  of  the 
party  paid  the  slightest  attention  to  Titian  and  Paul 
Veronese.  At  Athens  the  arrival  of  the  Empress 
was  celebrated  by  a  public  holiday.  The  Sultan 
lavished  money  in  preparing  for  his  lovely  guest. 
He  ordered  the  principal  streets  of  his  capital  to  be 
cleaned  and  paved,  and  the  French  party  drove 
through  a  refurbished  and  gaily  decorated  Constanti- 
nople, from  which  outward  signs  of  squalor  had  been 
cleared  away.  A  costly  State  litter  and  a  gorgeous 
caique  with  crimson  canopy  were  used  by  Eugenie 
on  her  excursions.  On  14  November  the  Aigle 
entered  Egyptian  waters.  A  fleet  of  ships  of  all 
countries  had  assembled,  and  among  the  royal 
visitors  were  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Prussia,  and  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  the 
Netherlands.  Eugenie's  vessel  was  the  first  to  go 
through  the  Canal  on  the  opening  day,  and  the 
illustrious  guests  had  left  their  own  ships  and 
gathered  round  her.  She  was  the  heroine  of  the 
occasion  and  shared  the  glory  of  Lesseps,  for  it 
was  known  that  she  had  encouraged  him  to  press 

186 


A  Letter  to  the  Emperor 

forward  in  his  difficult  enterprise.  "  Never  in  my 
life,"  said  the  Empress,  "  have  I  seen  anything 
more  lovely." 

One  of  the  strangest  events  of  the  hour  was  the 
setting  up,  as  it  were,  of  altar  against  altar,  for  while 
the  Grand  Ulema  summoned  the  Moslems  to  the 
prayers  of  their  religion,  the  Te  Deum  was  solemnly 
chanted  by  the  Christian  priests.  It  was  on  this 
memorable  occasion  that  the  Empress  presented 
to  Lesseps  a  silver  cup  bearing  the  inscription, 
1  L'Imperatrice  Eugenie  a  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps, 
18  Novembre  1869." 

From  the  Nile,  on  27  October,  1869,  the  Empress 
wrote  to  her  husband  a  long  political  letter,  which 
proves  that  experience  was  deepening  and  broaden- 
ing her  ideas  of  government. 

1 1  was  very  anxious  about  yesterday  and  think- 
ing of  you  in  Paris  without  me  ;  but  I  see  by  your 
despatch  that  everything  passed  off  well.  When 
we  observe  other  nations  we  can  judge  better  of  the 
injustice  of  our  own.  I  think,  however,  in  spite  of 
ally  that  you  must  not  be  discouraged,  but  continue 
in  the  course  you  have  begun.  It  is  right  to  keep 
faith  in  the  concessions  that  have  been  granted.  I 
hope  that  your  speech  will  be  in  this  spirit.  The 
more  strength  may  be  wanted  in  the  future,  the 
more  important  is  it  to  prove  to  the  country  that  we 
have  ideas  and  not  only  expedients.  I  speak  thus, 
far  away,  and  ignorant  of  what  has  passed  since  my 
departure  ;  but  I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that 
strength  lies  in  the  orderly  sequence  of  ideas.  I  do 
not  like  surprises,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  a  coup 
d'etat  cannot   be  made  twice  in  one  reign.     I   am 

187 


The  Declining  Reign 

talking  in  the  dark,  to  one  already  of  my  opinion,  and 
who  knows  more  than  I  can  know.  But  I  must  say 
something,  if  only  to  prove  what  you  know,  that  my 
heart  is  with  you  both,  and  that  if  in  calm  days  my 
wandering  spirit  loves  to  roam  in  space,  it  is  near 
you  both  I  love  to  be  in  times  of  care  and  doubt." 
Great  frankness  characterizes  the  Empress's  cor- 
respondence with  her  husband.  M.  Arsene  Houssaye 
does  not  exaggerate  when  he  says:  " Autant  l'Em- 
pereur  faisait  la  nuit  autour  de  lui,  autant  l'lmpera- 
trice  faisait  la  lumiere.  Autant  chez  lui  le  masque 
£tait  impenetrable,  autant  chez  elle  la  figure  6tait 
ouverte.     Ici,  l'6nigme ;  la,  le  mot." 


1 88 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE    EMPRESS    AND    HER   CHARITIES 

HISTORIANS  who  condemn  the  faults  and 
follies  of  the  Second  Empire  must  acknow- 
ledge that  under  the  rule  of  Napoleon  III  and  his 
consort  an  immense  impulse  was  given  to  chari- 
table effort.  "I  am  a  socialist,"  the  Emperor 
used  to  say,  and  many  of  his  schemes  were  in  line 
with  the  best  developments  of  the  present  century. 
From  his  house  of  exile  at  Chislehurst  he  propounded 
an  arbitration  project  which  might,  had  it  originated 
with  a  successful  instead  of  a  defeated  monarch, 
have  done  the  work  that  the  Czar  hoped  to  accom- 
plish by  the  Hague  Conference.  In  all  his  plans 
for  the  advancement  of  the  people  he  had  the  eager 
support  of  his  wife.  Eugenie  was  accustomed  to 
leave  the  Tuileries  early  in  the  morning,  and  to  visit 
the  hospitals  and  asylums  of  which  she  was  patroness. 
No  previous  announcement  was  made,  as  the  Empress 
preferred  to  watch  the  everyday  working  of  the 
houses.  Madame  Carette,  who  accompanied  her  on 
such  expeditions,  says  that  nine  o'clock  was  the  usual 
starting  time.  "  Her  Majesty  entered  a  large  dark 
brown  landau,  lined  with  grey  cloth,  which  she  called 
her  '  wall-coloured  carriage.'  A  griffin  painted  on 
each  door  took  the  place  of  the  royal  arms.  The 
coachman  and  groom  wore  black  liveries,  without 

is9 


The  Empress  and  her  Charities 

cockades,  and  so  we  went  into  the  poorest  quarters, 
like  those  charitable  ladies  who  help  the  nuns  to 
nurse  and  comfort  sick  patients  in  their  homes." 

The  Home  Ministers  of  the  period  respected  the 
Empress  on  account  of  her  charitable  labours. 
M.  Ernest  Pinard  tells  how  she  pleaded  with  him 
on  behalf  of  the  young  prisoners  in  the  houses  of 
correction,  and  how,  by  her  influence,  the  notorious 
La  Roquette — where  the  poor  children  were  confined 
like  wild  animals  in  their  cells — was  transformed  into 
a  farm  colony  in  the  country. 

The  first  of  her  charitable  foundations  was  the 
Maison  Eugene  -  Napoleon,  the  establishment  for 
orphan  girls  which  was  built  at  her  marriage  with 
the  sum  set  aside  by  the  City  of  Paris  as  a  wedding 
gift.  The  home  fell  into  financial  difficulties,  and 
in  order  to  place  the  income  on  a  sound  basis,  the 
Empress  insured  her  life  for  two  and  a  half  million 
francs.  Here  three  hundred  orphans  were  trained 
for  useful  employments.  These  words  were  in- 
scribed on  the  chapel  porch  : — 

"  Sous  1' invocation  de  la  tres  Sainte  Vierge  et  de 
Sainte  Eugenie  cette  maison  a  6te  fondee  pour 
honorer  la  religion  et  le  travail.' * 

The  story  told  by  Madame  Carette  of  the  invasion 
of  the  Orphanage  during  the  Commune  leaves  a 
painful  impression.  Delegates  from  the  government 
of  the  National  Defence  arrived  unexpectedly,  and 
ordered  the  nuns  to  quit  the  house.  They  were 
driven  out,  and  notwithstanding  all  their  entreaties 
they  were  allowed  to  take  away  only  their  youngest 
pupils,  as  the  Communards  preferred  to  keep  the 
others."     The  story  which  follows  has  its  parallel 

190 


Work  for  the  Hospitals 

only  in  the  pages  of  Schiller's  Robbers,  or  in  the  tale 
of  horror  recounted  by  Raphael's  mother  in  Hypatia. 
Madame  Carette  says  that  after  the  troops  had 
entered  Paris  the  nuns  returned  and  gathered  to- 
gether the  unhappy  girls. 

One  of  the  most  sumptuous  volumes  published 
during  the  Second  Empire  was  the  Marquis  de  la 
Valette's  work  on  the  charitable  institutions  under 
the  patronage  of  the  Empress.  Here  we  have  a 
history  of  nine  important  establishments,  three 
of  which  were  for  the  care  of  the  deaf  and  dumb, 
and  one  for  the  blind.  To  the  hospital  board  of 
Lyon  Her  Majesty  presented  the  chateau  of  Long- 
chene  as  a  convalescent  home.  Writing  from  the 
Tuileries  on  9  July,  1866,  she  said,  "  I  have  followed 
with  keen  interest  all  the  measures  taken  by  the 
members  of  the  hospital  commission  of  Lyon  to  help 
the  suffering  people.  The  establishment  of  a  ma- 
ternity hospital  at  la  Croix-Rousse,  the  installation 
of  more  beds  at  the  hospital  of  La  Charity,  and  the 
new  system  of  burial  (a  reform  in  which  I  have  been 
specially  interested)  are  all  proofs  of  that  intelligent 
and  devoted  zeal  which  the  board  has  always 
applied  to  the  fulfilment  of  its  noble  task.  I  know 
that,  thanks  to  its  activity,  other  improvements  will 
soon  be  carried  out,  but  there  is,  it  seems  to  me,  one 
gap  which  must  be  filled.  The  establishment  at  Vin- 
cennes  of  a  convalescent  home,  founded  by  the  Em- 
peror in  1855,  showed  how  important  it  is  not  to 
allow  the  sick  to  go  straight  from  hospital  to  their 
work.  I  wish  this  idea  to  be  carried  out  at  Lyon 
also,  and  for  that  purpose  I  give  to  the  hospitals  of 
the  town  the  chateau  of  Longchene,  with  its  de- 

191 


The  Empress  and  her  Charities 

pendencies,  in  order  that  it  may  become  a  con- 
valescent home.  The  interests  of  the  poor  are  so 
well  looked  after  by  the  administration  of  the 
hospital  board  that  I  need  hardly  entreat  them  to 
arrange  that  this  home  shall  be  opened  as  soon  as 
possible." 

When  the  Prince  Imperial  was  a  boy  of  ten  he  was 
taken  by  his  mother  to  visit  the  Home  for  Blind 
Children.  This  was  no  mere  hurried  or  formal  in- 
spection. Every  corner  of  the  house  was  seen, 
including  the  workshops,  dormitories,  and  sick- 
rooms. The  Empress  asked  many  questions  about 
the  system  of  education,  and  examined  the  pupils 
in  their  studies.  .  Even  from  the  dry  official  accounts 
published  by  the  Home  Minister,  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  pleasant  memories  were  left  after  all  these 
visits.  Eugenie  understood  instinctively  how  to 
awaken  the  love  of  children. 

The  Loan  to  Labour  Society  was  skilfully  managed 
by  the  Empress,  under  whose  guidance  more  than 
£40,000  was  lent  to  workmen  for  the  purchase  of 
raw  material  for  their  trade.  Other  good  works  in 
which  she  interested  herself  were  the  Asylum  for 
Sick  Children  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine,  the  So- 
ciety of  Sailors'  Orphans,  the  Lifeboat  Society,  and 
the  Fund  for  Pensioning  Old  Sailors. 

Both  Sovereigns  regularly  gave  away  large  sums 
in  charity.  In  1856,  the  year  of  the  inundation, 
Napoleon  gave  £24,000  in  aid  of  the  sufferers,  and 
the  Empress  opened  the  national  subscription  by 
a  gift  of  £800  in  her  own  name,  and  £400  in  that  of 
her  new-born  son.  In  1853,  during  a  visit  to  Dieppe, 
the  Empress  gave  40,000  francs  to  a  community  of 

192 


Generous  Gifts 

Sisters  of  Charity  in  the  town,  15,000  francs  to  a  home 
for  infirm  sailors,  as  well  as  considerable  sums  for 
the  building  of  schools.  In  1854  the  "  Sainte  Eu- 
genie Children's  Hospital  "  was  erected,  and  in  the 
same  year  the  Emperor  and  Empress  contributed 
600,000  francs  towards  a  home  for  indigent  work- 
men. Several  seaside  hospitals  were  opened  under 
the  direction  of  the  Empress,  and  largely  endowed 
from  her  private  purse.  During  the  war  in  Italy 
she  opened  a  fund  for  the  women  and  children  of 
fallen  soldiers,  which  brought  in  over  5,000,000 
francs.  By  an  Imperial  decree  of  1862  all  homes 
and  asylums  for  children  were  placed  under  the 
direction  of  the  Empress,  and  each  one  benefited 
by  her  liberal  charities. 

In  the  severe  winter  of  1867  public  kitchens  were 
opened  in  the  capital,  and  maintained  from  the 
Imperial  privy  purse. 

We  all  remember  the  story  of  the  sick  woman  in 
hospital  who  thought  that  the  dark-robed  lady 
bending  over  her  bed  was  a  nun  and  addressed  her 
as  "  Ma  sceur."  The  matron  of  the  hospital 
apologized,  but  Eugenie  said,  "Do  not  correct  her; 
it  is  the  most  beautiful  name  I  could  have."  Many 
a  sufferer  must  have  breathed  for  her  that  benedic- 
tion which  Victor  Hugo  expresses  for  some  unknown 
woman  in  his  beautiful  poem  "  Date  Lilia  "  : — 

Oh  !  qui  que  vous  soyez,  bdnissez  la.     C'cst  elle ! 
La  soeur,  visible  aux  yeux,  cle  mon  ame  immortelle ! 
Mon  orgueil,  mon  espoir,  mon  abri,  mon  recours. 


193 


CHAPTER    X 

THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   WAR   OF   1870 

The  deceptive  calm — "Malgretout" — Causes  of  the  war — Was 
Eugenie  to  blame  ? — Her  last  Regency — Paris  during  the  War — 
The  news  of  Worth — Shall  the  Emperor  return  ? — The  last 
night  at  the  Tuileries. 

THE  year  of  catastrophe  opened  amidst  a  decep- 
tive stillness.  A  Liberal  Ministry  accepted 
office  on  2  January,  1870,  and  France  appeared  to 
be  entering  on  such  an  epoch  of  settled  government 
as  she  now  enjoys  under  the  Republic.  The  Em- 
peror, in  surrendering  the  privileges  of  the  autocrat, 
might  with  reason  claim  a  new  loyalty  as  a  constitu- 
tional sovereign.  The  man  of  the  coup  d'etat  was 
willing  now  to  efface  himself  behind  Emile  Ollivier 
and  his  colleagues.  Famous  exiles,  such  as  Guizot 
and  Odilon  Barrot,  returned  to  Paris,  and  were  wel- 
comed at  ministerial  receptions. 

Many  of  the  "  intellectuals,"  such  as  Ernest  Renan, 
built  high  hopes  on  the  new  ministry.  "  We  did  not 
love  the  Empire,"  says  Renan,  "  yet  we  set  ourselves 
to  the  rough  task  of  improving  it."  In  his  Souvenirs 
du  Journal  des  Debats,  Renan  remarks  :  "  The  Liberal 
Empire  committed  one  unpardonable  blunder — the 
war,  but  perhaps  after  all  it  gave  the  largest  amount 
of  liberty  which  can  be  granted  in  France  without 
provoking  excesses.  God — that  is  history — will 
judge  it  mercifully.     The  Liberal  Empire  failed,  as 

194 


New  Hopes  of  1870 

all  governments  in  France  have  failed  for  a  hundred 
years.  But  in  a  shipwreck  we  do  not  despise  the 
hen-coop  which  comes  within  reach  of  our  hand. 
We  clutch  at  anything  that  offers." 

A  breeze  of  hope  was  blowing  over  the  country, 
but  the  refreshing  air  scarcely  penetrated  within  the 
walls  of  the  Tuileries.  For  the  Emperor's  worn-out 
body  and  mind  there  could  be  no  revival,  though  he 
still  clung  to  the  sceptre  with  trembling  hand.  He 
was  suffering  already  from  the  internal  malady  which 
three  years  later  caused  his  death  at  Chislehurst. 
His  dull,  melancholy  expression  told  that  the  inner 
light  was  extinguished.  Yet  on  21  May,  after  the 
plebiscite  which  confirmed  the  Ministry  in  power,  he 
foreshadowed  a  magnificent  programme  of  reforms, 
and  appealed  for  support  to  all  men  of  goodwill. 

There  was  no  point  noir  in  his  language,  no  shadow 
of  apprehension.  At  the  height  of  his  glory  he  had 
sometimes  used  the  language  of  the  adventurer- 
monarch,  who  sees  beyond  the  lighted  palace  halls 
the  black  night  which  will  at  last  engulf  him.  What 
was  his  true  feeling  at  this  moment  ?  Did  he  realize 
that  the  homes  in  which  he  had  dwelt  secure  for 
seventeen  years  were  like  the  Indian's  camp — a  ring 
of  light,  a  spot  of  fire,  with  the  illimitable  forest  all 
around  ?  Did  he  foresee  the  early  fall  of  his  dy- 
nasty— 

Oblivion  gone  home  with  her  harvesting 

And  all  left  smooth  again  as  scythe  could  shave  ? 

There  are  utterances  which  prove  that  he  remem- 
bered the  possibilities  of  the  future  as  clearly  as  the 
country  actor  who  glitters  for  a  few  hours  on  the 
stage   remembers   his  little   house,   with   its  sordid 

195 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

needs  and  precarious  shelter.    These  were  not  the 
utterances  of  May,  1870.     Princes  who  have  perished 
by  the  assassin's  hand  have  usually  been  quietest  and 
most  confident  on  the  eve  of  slaughter.     So  it  was 
with  Wallenstein,  with  Darnley,  with  Henry  of  Guise. 
France  was  now  rushing  giddily  towards  the  abyss, 
yet  historians  assure  us  that  the  month  of  June, 
1870,  was  one  of  the  most  tranquil  in  the  annals  of 
the  Second  Empire.    The  signs  which,  to  us,  reading 
after  the  event,  appear  so  menacing,  were  then 
ignored  or  neglected.     Gambetta  in  that  session  de- 
scribed the  Government  as  a  bridge  between  the 
Republic  of  1848  and  the  Republic  that  was  coming 
— "  a   bridge   which   we   shall   pass   over."     Henri 
Rochefort  was  carrying  on  his  malignant  and  deadly 
campaign    against    the    Imperial    family.     On    the 
"  Rive   gauche,"   in   little   halls   and   through   the 
medium  of  obscure  venomous  newspapers,  the  men 
of  the  Commune  were  at  work.     Their  animosity 
might,  however,  have  proved  as  harmless  as  gnat- 
stings  to  a  giant  if  the  Emperor  had  refused  to  be 
dragged  into  the  war  with  Prussia. 

In  considering  the  part  played  by  the  Empress 
Eugenie  during  the  war  we  must  remember  that  she 
had  been  for  some  years  a  powerful  force  in  politics. 
Her  influence  had  grown  as  that  of  her  husband  de- 
clined. George  Sand's  remarkable  novel,  Malgretout, 
published  in  1869,  contained,  as  the  public  persisted 
in  believing,  a  revelation  of  Eugenie's  character  and 
ambitions. 

There  is  a  brief  reference  to  the  book  in  MerimeVs 
correspondence.  "  A  few  days  ago,"  he  says, 
writing  on  20  March,  1870,  "  I  received  a  very  kind 

196 


"  Malgretout " 

letter  from  our  hostess  of  Biarritz.  She  asks  my 
advice  about  a  novel  by  Madame  Sand,  in  which  she 
appears  in  a  very  bad  light.  Madame  Sand  has  on 
several  occasions  had  recourse  to  her,  and  has  re- 
ceived favours  at  her  hands.  She  wanted  somebody 
to  ask  the  author  to  declare  that  the  allusion  was 
not  to  her.  You  will  divine  the  advice  I  gave  her — 
de  minimis  non  curat  prcetor." 

We  can  understand  why  this  book  annoyed  the 
Empress.  She  was  believed  to  be  the  original  of 
the  beautiful  Spaniard,  Mademoiselle  d'Ortosa,  whose 
ambitious  dreams  came  very  near  the  realities  of  her 
own  career.  Mademoiselle  d'Ortosa  says  :  "I  want 
to  marry  a  rich,  young,  and  handsome  man,  who  is 
passionately  in  love  with  me,  constantly  submissive 
to  me,  and  who  bears  with  glory  in  the  world  a  very 
illustrious  name.  I  want  him  to  have  power  also, 
to  be  king,  emperor,  or  at  least  heir  presumptive  to 
a  reigning  monarch." 

'  I  appear,"  she  says  again,  "  to  attach  great  im- 
portance to  trivial  things.  People  do  not  suspect 
the  serious  preoccupations  which  absorb  my  mind. 
That  will  be  understood  later  on,  when  I  am  queen, 
czarina,  grand-duchess,  or  president  of  a  republic. 
I  know  well  that  the  people  are  bestirring  themselves 
and  desire  new  forms  of  government,  but  I  don't  be- 
lieve that  this  fever  will  last.  Were  I  president  to- 
day, even  in  America,  I  should  be  certain  to  become 
sovereign  to-morrow.  I  wish  after  playing  a  brilliant 
part  in  the  world,  to  live  in  dazzling  fame  in  history. 
...  I  don't  wish  to  disappear,  like  a  common  ac- 
tress, with  my  youth  and  my  beauty.  I  wish  to 
have  a  crown  on  my  white  hair.     The  wearer  of  a 

197 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

crown  always  appears  lovely,  because  she  always 
dazzles.  I  wish  to  pass  through  great  conflicts,  great 
perils.  Even  the  scaffold  has  for  me  a  strange 
fascination." 

Striking  indeed  are  the  following  words  of  Made- 
moiselle d'Ortosa,  in  view  of  the  events  of  4  Sep- 
tember, 1870  :  "I  shall  never  go  into  exile,  I  shall 
never  take  flight,  I  shall  never  be  captured  on  the 
road  to  Varennes." 

And  not  less  impressive  is  this  prophecy  :  "I  shall 
not  lose  my  reason  in  disaster.  I  shall  boldly  con- 
front the  most  tragic  destinies.  I  shall  fight  the 
popular  lion  face  to  face.  He  will  never  make  me 
lower  my  eyes,  and  I  swear  to  you  that  I  shall  know 
more  than  once  how  to  lay  him  in  chains  at  my  feet. 
After  that,  let  him  awake,  let  him  grow  weary,  let 
him  carry  my  head  on  the  point  of  his  lance  :  that 
will  be  the  day  of  my  supreme  glory.  That  pale  face 
of  mine,  crowned  yet  once  more  with  the  martyr's 
wreath,  will  remain  for  ever  engraven  on  the  memory 
of  men." 

Writing  to  Gustave  Flaubert  from  Nohant  on  19 
March,  1870,  George  Sand  repudiated  the  suggestion 
that  she  had  drawn  a  portrait  of  the  Empress  in 
Malgretout.  Here  is  the  passage  :  "I  know  that 
she  is  very  kind  to  unfortunate  persons  who  are 
recommended  to  her.  That  is  all  that  I  do 
know  about  her  private  life.  I  have  never  read 
a  revelation  or  document  about  her,  not  a  single 
word,  not  a  single  fact,  which  would  have  authorized 
me  in  painting  her.  I  swear  that  I  have  only  drawn 
a  figure  of  fancy,  and  those  who  should  pretend  to 
recognize  her  in  a  satire  of  any  kind  would  be  in 

198 


The  Quarrel  with  Prussia 

any  case  bad  servants  and  bad  friends.  I  never 
write  satires.  I  do  not  know  what  the  word  means. 
Neither  do  I  ever  draw  portraits.  It  is  not  my  line 
of  work.  I  invent.  The  public  which  does  not 
know  what  invention  means  thinks  it  can  discover 
models  everywhere.  It  deceives  itself  and  lowers 
Art.  This  is  my  sincere  reply.  I  have  only  time  to 
send  it  to  the  post." 

Flaubert  sent  this  letter  to  Madame  Cornu,  god- 
daughter of  Queen  Hortense  and  foster-sister  of 
Napoleon  III.  We  may  assume  that  it  was  passed 
on  to  the  Empress.  In  a  letter  sent  on  3  July  to 
Emile  de  Girardin,  Madame  Sand  refers  to  a  passage 
in  the  New  York  Evening  Post  on  Malgretout  in 
which  it  was  suggested  that  even  if  the  amazing 
career  of  some  historic  personage  had  impressed  the 
mind  of  George  Sand  at  the  time  when  she  wished  to 
paint  the  aspirations  of  an  ambitious  adventuress, 
this  was  no  proof  that  she  had  ever  drawn  a  cha- 
racter taken  from  real  life  or  had  dreamed  of  throw- 
ing any  light  on  facts  which  concerned  her.  "  These 
remarks,"  Madame  Sand  added,  "  appeared  to  me 
fair  and  in  good  taste." 

The  cause  of  the  quarrel  with  Prussia,  as  all  re- 
member, was  the  candidature  of  Prince  Leopold  of 
Hohenzollern  for  the  throne  of  Spain.  After  pro- 
longed negotiations,  the  King  of  Prussia,  seeing  that 
the  opinion  of  Europe  was  against  him,  acquiesced 
in  his  relative's  renunciation  of  the  crown.  Spanish 
politicians,  alarmed  by  the  excitement  of  the  French 
people,  were  eager  to  draw  back  from  their  compro- 
mising proposal.  But  in  an  evil  hour  France  per- 
sisted in  demanding  guarantees  from  King  William. 

199 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

The  powerful  war  party  shouted  down  the  sagacious 
and  moderate  men.  Even  as  late  as  11  July  a  wise 
statesman  might  have  secured  peace  with  honour. 

King  William,  while  refusing  to  yield  to  pressure 
from  France,  was  tacitly  agreeing  to  all  that  France 
desired.  On  the  morning  of  12  July  Prince  Anthony 
of  Hohenzollern  telegraphed  to  Marshal  Prim  that 
in  view  of  the  complications  aroused  by  his  son's 
candidature,  he  had  decided  to  withdraw  his  name. 
Some  dark  weight  of  destiny  rested  over  France  in 
this  hour,  for  the  telegram  of  "  Pere  Antoine  "  was 
considered  insufficient  without  formal  promises  from 
Prussia.  The  thought  of  war  was  hateful  to  the 
Emperor.  On  12  July  he  said  to  M.  Nigra,  "  Peace 
is  secured.  I  want  you  to  telegraph  the  news  to 
your  Government."  To  General  Bourbaki  he  said  : 
"  There  will  be  no  need  to  prepare  your  war  equip- 
ment. The  withdrawal  of  the  Prince  of  Hohen- 
zollern removes  all  cause  of  strife." 

Napoleon  had  every  reason  to  desire  peace,  for  he 
was  physically  unfit  to  lead  a  campaign.  On  3  July, 
in  the  midst  of  the  crisis,  eminent  specialists  assem- 
bled in  consultation  at  the  palace  declared  that  the 
Emperor  must  not  ride,  or  even  drive  much,  and 
that  an  operation  must  take  place  in  the  early  future. 
M.  Alfred  Darimon  tells  that  at  a  dinner-party  given 
by  Prince  Napoleon  in  1879  ne  me^  Dr.  Ricord,  one 
of  the  surgeons  who  took  part  in  the  consultation. 
The  Prince  asked  Dr.  Ricord  why  the  result  of  the 
examination  had  been  kept  secret,  and  why  the 
document,  published  after  the  fall  of  the  Empire, 
bore  only  the  signature  of  Dr.  G.  See.  Dr.  Ricord 
replied  that  his  colleague,  Dr.  Nelaton,  had  been  to 


200 


Napol 


Illi 


eon  s   illness 


blame.  He  feared  that  he  might  be  called  in  to 
operate,  and  shrank  from  the  responsibility.  With- 
out exactly  refusing  to  put  his  name  to  the  paper,  he 
did  not  offer  to  do  so,  and  the  others  followed  his 
example.  "That  man,"  said  Prince  Napoleon,  after 
the  departure  of  Dr.  Ricord,  "  held  in  his  hands  the 
destinies  of  France.  If  that  old  man  had  spoken,  we 
should  not  have  had  the  frightful  war  of  1870." 

Some  Bonapartist  writers,  such  as  M.  Jules 
Richard,  accuse  the  Empress  of  having  deliberately 
concealed  from  her  husband  the  opinion  of  the 
medical  men  ;  but  as  one  name  only  appeared  at 
the  foot  of  the  paper,  she  may  naturally  have  sup- 
posed that  the  other  surgeons  took  a  less  grave  view 
of  his  condition.  Nor  is  there  any  proof  that  the 
painful  knowledge  was  really  hidden  from  him.  Con- 
scious of  his  own  feebleness,  he  grasped  eagerly  at 
the  prospect  of  peace,  and  would  not  of  his  own 
initiative  have  insisted  on  the  pledges  which  must 
humble  Prussia. 

Alas  for  Napoleon's  hopes  !  On  the  evening  of 
12  July  crowds  on  the  boulevards  were  singing  the 
Marseillaise  and  shouting,  "  A  Berlin  !  A  Berlin  ! 
Comte  d'Haussonville  says  in  his  Journal  that  the 
cafes  were  filled  with  noisy  bawlers,  while  bands 
of   idle   fellows   patrolled   the   streets,   singing   the 

1 

Marseillaise  and  shouting,  A  Berlin  !  "  at  the  full 
pitch  of  their  lungs.  "  This  spectacle,  which  I  wit- 
nessed for  three  days  on  my  return  from  Gurcy,  was 
extremely  displeasing  to  me." 

On  14  July,  at  the  Council  at  Saint  Cloud,  the 
Empress  declared  in  vehement  language  that  war 
was  inevitable  if  the  honour  of  France  was  to  be 


201 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

saved.  Her  conduct  is  thus  criticized  by  M.  de  la 
Gorce  in  the  most  solemn  passage  of  his  history  : 
"  At  Saint  Cloud  (on  14  July)  the  result  of  the  de- 
liberations at  the  Tuileries  was  anxiously  awaited. 
The  most  fatal  passions  ruled  there,  the  passions 
which  are  born  of  presumption,  wrath,  and  ignorance. 
In  the  evening  the  Emperor  returned,  bearing  with 
him  the  hope  of  a  Congress.  At  the  news  that  there 
was  still  some  thought  of  negotiations,  a  cry  broke 
out  against  the  insolence  of  Prussia,  which  must 
forthwith  be  chastised.  So  spoke  the  impatient  and 
the  ambitious,  the  frivolous  and  the  violent.  It  can- 
not be  questioned  that  the  Empress  encouraged,  if 
she  did  not  inspire,  this  reprobation.  A  very  honour- 
able reserve,  born  of  pity  for  misfortune  and  also  of 
fidelity  to  an  august  sovereign  lady,  has  veiled  or 
softened  after  the  event  most  of  the  public  testi- 
monies which  might  accuse  her.  But  from  all  the 
correspondence  in  manuscript,  from  all  private 
papers,  one  very  clear  impression  stands  out :  it  was 
she  who,  on  the  side  of  France,  was  the  principal 
maker  of  the  war." 

Must  we  accept  this  statement  without  reserve,' 
and  will  history  hold  the  Empress  responsible  for  the 
horrors  of  1870  ?  Surely  a  large  part  of  the  blame 
must  fall  on  the  Due  de  Gramont,  whose  aggressive 
diplomacy  lighted  the  flame  in  Prussia  ;  on  Marshal 
Lebceuf,  who  again  and  again  assured  his  fellow- 
ministers  that  the  army  was  ready  ;  on  the  fierce 
instigators  of  war  in  the  Legislative  Body  ;  on  the 
feeble,  vacillating  Emperor  ;  and  on  the  populace 
of  Paris,  which  was  athirst  for  blood  and  glory.  If 
we  must  grieve  for  ever  that  the  Empress  failed  to 


202 


Was  the  Empress  to  Blame  ? 

remember  in  that  awful  strife  the  Saviour's  beati- 
tude on  the  peacemakers,  we  may  claim  for  her,  at 
least,  that  apology  which  the  Due  de  Gramont 
offered  for  himself.  "  I  decided  on  the  war  with  an 
absolute  confidence  in  victory.  I  believed  in  the 
greatness  of  my  country,  in  her  strength,  in  her 
martial  valour,  as  firmly  as  I  believe  in  my  holy 
religion." 

General  Du  Barail,  who  considers  the  Empress 
"  if  not  the  only,  at  least  the  principal  maker  of  the 
war  of  1870,"  allows  many  excuses  for  her  conduct. 
"  She  knew  that,  sooner  or  later,  war  would  break 
out,  and  like  a  woman — and  a  passionate  woman — 
she  thought  it  best  to  get  it  over  immediately.  She 
neither  heard  nor  saw  any  advisers  save  those  who 
assured  her  that  success  was  certain.  She  believed 
that  we  were  fully  ready.  How  was  it  possible  for 
her  to  compare  the  imperfections  of  our  armament, 
and  even  our  numerical  inferiority,  with  the  superior 
equipment  and  larger  forces  of  Germany  ?  Could 
she  refuse  to  believe  a  Minister  of  War,  a  marshal  of 
France,  when  he  assured  her,  as  he  assured  the  Legis- 
lative Body — but  with  far  more  freedom  and  per- 
suasive power — that  there  was  absolutely  nothing 
lacking  to  us  ?  And  then,  besides  being  a  woman, 
she  was  a  mother." 

Against  the  one  supreme  mistake  we  must  set  her 
thirty-six  years  of  exile,  her  early  widowhood,  the 
loss  of  her  idolized  son.  The  hands  which  on  those 
summer  evenings  "  trembled  feverishly  on  the 
sword  "  were  soon  to  be  laying  the  last  tributes  of 
aflcction  on  the  graves  in  which  her  heart  was  buried. 

The  best  answer  to  that  severe  sentence  of  M.  de 

203 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

la  Gorce  is  to  be  found  in  his  own  earlier  chapters. 
As  I  read  the  provocative  despatches  of  the  Due  de 
Gramont  to  M.  Benedetti,  the  French  Ambassador 
at  Berlin,  the  boastful,  lying  statements  of  Lebceuf 
about  the  army,  the  passionate  harangues  at  the 
Palais  Bourbon,  I  cannot  understand  why  the  blame 
for  the  war  should  be  laid  on  the  shoulders  of  one 
woman.  Her  responsibility,  if  she  must  bear  it,  was 
partial  and  divided.  Nor  can  we  forget  that  it  was 
Bismarck  who  at  the  last  moment  forced  France  into 
the  struggle. 

On  16  July  the  troops  began  to  leave  Paris,  and 
spectators  at  the  Gare  de  l'Est  noticed  the  want  of 
discipline,  the  confusion,  and  the  occasional  drunken- 
ness. It  was  quickly  discovered  that  the  army  was 
wretchedly  equipped  for  war.  "  We  need  all  sorts  of 
things,"  wrote  one  general.  "  We  are  beggared  of 
everything,"  telegraphed  another.  Leboeuf  himself 
was  in  despair  when  he  went  through  his  military 
storehouses  at  Metz. 

On  28  July  the  Empress  bade  farewell,  at  Saint 
Cloud,  to  her  husband  and  her  fourteen-year-old  son. 
A  solemn  farewell  Mass  was  celebrated  on  the  27th 
by  Archbishop  Darboy.  We  read  in  the  Life  of  this 
prelate,  by  Cardinal  Foulon,  that  he  was  impressed 
by  the  sadness  of  the  Emperor's  manner  in  the 
moment  of  leave-taking.  His  bearing  was  grave  and 
gentle,  and  he  spoke  mournfully  of  the  uncertainties 
of  war.  To  Marshal  Randon,  Napoleon  said,  "  I  am 
advanced  in  years,  far  from  strong,  very  unfit  for  a 
campaign." 

The  departure  was  different  indeed  from  the  bril- 
liant start  for  Italy  in  1859.     The  Emperor  wished 

204 


Departure  of  the  Emperor 

to  avoid  all  demonstrations,  and  set  out  by  the 
private  railway  from  Saint  Cloud. 

Eugenie  had  packed  her  boy's  trunk  with  her  own 
hands.  On  that  cloudy  summer  morning  she  stood 
with  him  on  the  steps  of  the  palace.  Never  had  she 
allowed  her  son  to  leave  her  for  the  shortest  journey 
without  first  tracing  on  his  forehead  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  and  this  loving  Spanish  custom  she  repeated 
with  anxious  tenderness  as  her  child-soldier  em- 
braced her  for  the  last  time.  "  Do  your  duty, 
Louis,  all  your  duty,"  was  her  parting  injunction. 

The  Emperor's  final  words  were  addressed  to  one 
of  his  chamberlains  as  the  train  was  starting.  "  Du 
Manoir,"  he  said,  "  I  did  not  say  good-bye  to  you." 

The  little  station  in  the  park  soon  emptied  ;  the 
Regent  returned  to  her  house  with  her  ministers. 
Napoleon  had  looked  for  the  last  time  on  Paris. 

To  English  writers  the  prospects  of  the  war  seemed 
far  from  certain.  The  Spectator  wrote  on  23  July  : 
"  No  race  has  ever  existed  in  Europe,  not  even  the 
Roman,  which  could  pretend  to  meet  the  Gaul  in 
battle  without  a  doubt  of  the  result ;  nor  is  there  one, 
except  the  English,  which  has  not  time  and  again 
been  forced  to  sue  to  France  for  peace.  .  .  .  But  even 
France,  with  all  her  genius  for  war,  her  courage  and 
her  patriotism,  even  the  army  which  won  Magenta, 
may  be  overtaxed,  and  unless  we  misread  all  modern 
history,  the  march  to  Berlin  will  overtax  her.  It  is 
not  an  army,  but  an  armed  nation,  which  is  in  the 
road." 

Two  days  later,  on  30  July,  the  Times  corre- 
spondent wrote:  "The  idea  of  a  war  is  borne  more 
gaily  and  lightly  here  than  you  can  well  imagine. 

205 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

...  It  is  taken  less  to  heart  by  us  than  by  you."  M. 
Rouher,  in  a  glowing  speech  to  the  Senate,  had  as- 
sured the  Emperor  that  "  a  grateful  nation  will  not 
delay  to  prepare  the  honours  of  victory  for  her  equally 
grateful  children."  With  passionate  longing  the 
French  people  awaited  the  first  news  from  the  field. 
The  insignificant  skirmish  at  Saarbruck,  wildly  ex- 
aggerated in  the  official  messages,  produced  a  mo- 
mentary elation,  but  to  thoughtful  observers  it 
was  soon  apparent  that  the  army  was  in  no  condition 
to  take  the  offensive.  In  the  first  week  of  August 
the  terrible  defeats  of  Worth  and  Forbach  threw 
open  Alsace  and  Lorraine  to  the  conquering  Germans. 
Saturday,  6  August,  was  a  day  of  breathless  ex- 
pectation in  Paris.  All  hearts  fluctuated  between 
hope  and  fear.  At  one  moment  it  was  rumoured 
that  the  Prussian  army  had  been  shattered.  The 
whisper,  starting  from  the  Bourse,  flew  over  the 
capital,  and  in  the  central  streets  flags  were  thrown 
out.  At  the  Government  buildings  crowds  col- 
lected to  await  the  confirmation  of  the  good  news, 
but  the  ministers,  when  they  returned  from  a  council 
held  at  Saint  Cloud,  could  only  declare  that  they 
knew  nothing,  and  pledge  themselves  that  no  official 
intelligence  should  be  concealed. 

At  half-past  eleven,  when  darkness  had  fallen  and 
the  groups  in  the  streets  had  dispersed  in  sheer 
physical  lassitude,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  re- 
ceived a  message  from  the  Empress.  Napoleon 
had  telegraphed  from  Metz  to  Saint  Cloud,  "  We 
are  in  full  retreat."  He  appealed  for  firmness  in 
face  of  the  national  crisis,  and  asked  that  a  state  of 
siege  should  be  declared  and  the  defence  of  the 
capital  provided  for. 

206 


The  News  of  Worth 

Eugenie  left  Saint  Cloud  and  drove  to  the  Tuileries, 
where  a  prolonged  night  council  was  held.  This  was 
the  first  of  many  nights  during  those  dreadful  six 
weeks  when  the  Empress  never  laid  her  head  upon 
her  pillow.  As  the  summer  dawn  filtered  slowly 
through  the  palace  windows,  the  Regent  and  her 
ministers,  haggard,  worn,  oppressed  with  doubts 
and  cares,  still  sought  to  realize  the  full  purport  of 
the  fatal  news.  They  separated  for  a  few  hours, 
and  at  seven  returned  to  the  council-board. 

Church  bells  were  ringing,  and  already  the  bril- 
liant August  sun  had  roused  all  Paris  from  slumber. 
The  attendance  at  early  Mass  was  everywhere  larger 
than  usual,  and  after  service  the  newspapers 
were  scanned  with  feverish  excitement.  Not  until 
nine  o'clock  did  the  official  proclamation  appear, 
giving  the  facts  of  the  two  disasters  and  appealing 
for  unity  in  face  of  a  common  peril.  The  people 
gazed  at  the  announcement  in  bewilderment  and 
horror.  They  could  not  at  first  grasp  the  truth 
that  the  army  of  which  they  were  so  justly  proud 
had  been  shattered,  that  the  road  lay  open  from 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  that  proud  Paris  might  in  a 
few  days  be  ringed  round  with  the  enemy's  cannon. 
As  hours  passed  on  the  first  stupor  gave  place  to 
bitter  murmurings  against  the  defeated  generals, 
against  Leboeuf  and  Frossard  especially,  and  also 
against  the  Emperor.  The  word  "  deposition " 
passed  from  lip  to  lip  on  that  Sunday  afternoon. 

As  night  closed  in  angry  groups  paraded  the  streets, 
uttering  cries  of  wrath  and  vengeance.  Some  of 
these  must  have  reached  the  Empress  as  she  waited 
vainly  in  the  Tuileries  for  any  news  of  hope  or  com- 

207 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

fort.  She  slept  at  last,  we  may  imagine,  exhausted 
in  mind  and  body  by  the  continuous  strain  of  the 
past  twenty-four  hours. 

The  Regent  behaved  with  resolute  courage  after 
these  great  disasters.  Ernest  Pinard  visited  her  at 
the  Tuileries  and  found  her  walking  in  the  gardens, 
the  gates  of  which  were  closed  to  the  public.  The 
day  had  been  stormy,  and  at  night  a  thick  and 
stifling  heat  lay  over  Paris.  As  the  Empress  and 
her  companions  paced  slowly  along  the  paths,  dis- 
cussing in  sad  tones  the  news  of  the  reverses,  they 
could  hear  voices  in  the  distance  singing  the  Mar- 
seillaise and  see  curious,  disrespectful  faces  gazing 
in  through  the  iron  gratings.  "  The  difficulties 
of  the  moment,"  said  the  Empress,  "  can  be  met 
only  by  union.     Division  of  any  sort  will  ruin  us." 

When  some  one  touched  on  the  possible  danger 
to  Her  Majesty's  person,  the  Empress  answered 
firmly,  "  I  need  no  troops  for  my  own  defence. 
We  must  send  to  the  war  the  last  battalion  that  is 
left  to  us." 

Jules  Simon  tells  that  on  9  August,  after  the 
parliamentary  sitting,  when  the  Second  Empire 
existed  only  in  name,  two  workmen  in  white  blouses 
seized  the  horse  of  the  open  cab  in  which  he  was 
driving  away  from  the  Palais  Bourbon,  and  cried, 
"  We  must  depose  him."  "  The  words  were  caught 
up,  but  not  very  keenly.  Although  every  one  wished 
for  deposition,  that  was  not  the  business  of  the  day. 
On  the  contrary,  the  cry  was  heard  on  every  side, 
"  Let  him  come  back  !  Let  him  come  back  !  It  is 
he  who  is  ruining  us  !  There  were  also  loud  and 
persistent  cries  against  Marshal  Lebceuf.     It  took 

208 


The  Tottering  Empire 

me  nearly  an  hour  to  get  from  the  Solferino  Bridge 
to  the  Place  de  la  Madeleine." 

The  danger  that  now  threatened  the  Empire  was 
fully  realized  abroad.  The  Times,  in  a  leading 
article  of  Tuesday,  9  August,  said  :  "  Napoleon's 
name  is  ignored  in  Paris  in  all  the  acts  by  which  the 
Government  endeavours  to  raise  the  spirits  of  the 
dismayed  multitude.  One  would  say  that  things 
were  beginning  to  arrange  themselves  as  if  the 
Emperor  were  never  likely  to  reappear  at  the  head 
of  affairs,  and  as  if  people  were  considering  how  his 
presence  might  eventually  be  dispensed  with  alto- 
gether. It  seems,  indeed,  only  to  be  a  question 
who  shall  first  pronounce  the  word  '  abdication.'  " 

On  Monday,  8  August,  Paris  was  declared  to  be 
in  a  state  of  siege.  An  appeal,  signed  by  the  Regent, 
was  issued  to  the  people.  It  contained  these  words  : 
"  Let  there  be  but  one  party  among  us — that  of 
France  ;  let  us  follow  but  one  banner — that  of  our 
honour.  I  will  be  in  your  midst ;  you  will  see  me 
faithful  to  my  duty  and  calling,  the  first  where 
danger  threatens,  the  foremost  to  guard  the  honour 
of  the  Empire." 

Noble  and  lofty  words,  but  when  the  springs  of 
loyalty  were  sapped,  how  could  words  renew  them  ! 
The  one  hope  for  the  Imperial  House  lay  in  victory 
— overwhelming,  speedy  victory — and  the  distracted 
generals  at  Metz  and  Chalons  were  plunging  into 
deeper  catastrophe. 

The  fall  of  Emile  Ollivier's  Ministry  followed  the 
first  defeats,  and  the  reins  of  power  were  entrusted 
to  General  Palikao,  with  General  Trochu  as  Governor 
of  Paris. 

p  209 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

A  critical  moment  for  Eugenie  was  that  in  which 
the  return  of  the  Emperor  was  first  proposed  to  her. 
He  had  become  a  mere  embarrassment  to  the  army. 
After  relinquishing  the  command  he  still  dragged 
himself  painfully  about  with  the  troops,  devoid  of 
counsel,  stupefied  and  helpless  in  presence  of  dis- 
aster, incapacitated  often  by  physical  suffering. 
Some  of  the  generals,  desiring  to  get  rid  of  him, 
suggested  that  he  should  return  to  Paris  and  or- 
ganize the  defence  of  the  fatherland.  Prince  Na- 
poleon, ever  the  worst  enemy  of  the  Regent,  vigor- 
ously supported  the  proposal.  Eugenie  set  herself 
resolutely  against  it.  On  9  August,  when  the  Home 
Minister  cautiously  hinted  that  the  Emperor  would 
be  most  useful  in  his  capital,  she  met  him  with  an 
angry  denial.  "  His  return,"  she  replied,  "  would 
look  like  flight.  The  one  place  for  the  Emperor  is 
with  the  army."  The  minister  told  her  frankly  that 
the  army  wished  for  his  departure  ;  but  the  Regent 
would  not  be  convinced,  and  although  a  promise  to 
recall  her  husband  was  wrung  from  her,  the  despatch 
was  never  forwarded.  It  is  known  that  in  urgent 
private  telegrams  she  dissuaded  him  from  re-enter- 
ing Paris. 

Here  is  one  of  her  messages  :  "I  have  received  a 
despatch  from  Pietri.  Have  you  reflected  on  the 
full  consequences  of  your  return  to  Paris  under  the 
stroke  of  two  reverses  ?  As  for  me,  I  dare  not  take 
the  responsibility  of  advising.  If  you  should  decide 
to  come,  the  step  ought  at  least  to  be  explained  to 
the  country  as  provisional — the  Emperor  returning 
to  Paris,  re-organizing  the  Second  Army,  and  en- 
trusting the  leadership  of  the  Army  of  the  Rhine  to 
Bazaine  during  his  absence." 


210 


Shall   the  Emperor  Return  ? 

The  action  of  the  Empress  in  this  emergency  has 
been  severely  judged.  "  In  the  mind  of  the  Em- 
press," says  M.  de  la  Gorce,  "  thoughts  were  stirring 
which  she  did  not  confess  to  herself,  and  which  above 
all  she  would  not  have  permitted  any  one  else  to 
attribute  to  her.  She  had  three  great  grudges 
against  the  Emperor — he  had  grown  old  ;  he  had 
become  a  Liberal ;  he  had  been  beaten.  Weakened 
at  home  by  his  concessions,  disarmed  against  the 
enemy  by  his  defeats,  exhausted  besides  by  the  too 
early  wearing  out  of  his  body,  what  was  left  for  him 
but  to  disappear  ?  She,  on  the  other  hand,  was  still 
young,  ambitious,  and  a  mother.  The  law  had 
made  her  Regent.  The  public  safety  called  for 
energy  and  hope.  Hence  arose  the  secret  design  of 
providing  for  France,  for  the  Empire,  for  the  Prince 
Imperial,  even  without  the  Emperor,  who  would  be 
a  victim  sacrificed,  more  or  less,  to  destiny  through 
his  own  faults.  What  the  Empress  was  saying  to 
herself  very  softly,  the  Court  was  whispering  to  her 
also." 

All  the  calumnies  of  the  anti-Bonapartist  litera- 
ture affect  us  less  painfully  than  this  grave  accu- 
satory passage,  written  by  an  historian  who  weighs 
each  sentence  with  anxious  care.  Was  it  true  that 
the  Empress  desired  to  throw  her  husband  aside  like 
a  broken  sword  ?  Had  the  errors  of  his  life  ex- 
tinguished the  affection  she  once  felt  for  the  man 
who  raised  her  to  the  proudest  throne  of  Europe,  the 
lover  of  her  youth  ?  Did  she  actually  contemplate 
a  time  when,  with  peace  restored,  she  would  rule 
for  the  Prince  Imperial,  while  Napoleon,  already 
sick  and  suffering,  was  wearing  out  his  life  in  exile  ? 


211 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

Of  such  treachery  I  believe  the  Empress  was 
innocent.  If  the  thought  of  her  husband's  abdi- 
cation fascinated  her  for  a  moment,  we  must 
remember  the  desperate  straits  in  which  she  stood, 
and  her  passionate  desire  to  save  the  dynasty.  For 
seventeen  years,  amid  many  provocations,  she  had 
been  a  faithful  and  affectionate  wife,  and  if  the  wel- 
fare of  the  country  had  required  the  Emperor's 
departure,  she  would  not  have  sent  him  out  into  the 
wilderness  alone. 

For  those  who  reject  the  idea  of  a  secret  palace 
plot  framed  by  the  Empress  against  her  husband, 
there  are  simpler  explanations  of  her  reluctance 
to  permit  his  return  from  the  front.  She  was 
aware  that  the  revolutionary  spirit  was  spreading 
rapidly  in  Paris,  and  may  naturally  have  feared  that 
the  reappearance  of  the  Sovereign,  defeated  and 
disgraced,  would  provoke  the  catastrophe.  On  one 
point  she  was  right ;  his  return  would  inevitably 
have  been  regarded  as  an  escape.  The  public  had 
not  heard  the  explanations  of  the  generals  and 
ministers.  What  explanations,  after  all,  could  ex- 
cuse the  flight  of  a  Bonaparte  from  the  battlefield  ? 
Happen  what  might  afterwards,  such  an  action  would 
have  sealed  the  doom  of  his  dynasty.  Napoleon 
must  often  have  wished  that,  like  the  gallant  general 
Abel  Douay,  he  could  have  fallen  at  the  head  of  his 
troops.  But  since  that  door  of  escape  refused  to 
open  to  him,  honour  demanded  that  he  should  re- 
main with  his  soldiers.  The  Empress,  in  opposing 
his  return,  acted  with  wisdom  and  kindness.  Her 
advice  saved  what  was  left  of  his  reputation,  and 
may  not  impossibly  have  saved  his  life.     The  Regent 


212 


Closing  Weeks  of  the   Regency- 
made  some  serious  mistakes  during  these  agonizing 
weeks  which  preceded  the  Revolution.     But  a  sound 
judgment  guided  her  when  she  declared,  "  The  Em- 
peror will  not  return  to  Paris  alive." 

Eugenie's  last  official  reception  was  held  on  14 
August.  The  ladies  wore  mourning  for  the  soldiers 
who  had  fallen  in  the  war.  The  Empress's  gown 
was  of  black  net,  and  her  only  ornaments  were  jet 
bracelets  and  a  jet  diadem.  Those  who  remember 
that  gathering  describe  the  tone  as  hopeful — "  the 
last  flash  of  the  sun  before  it  set  behind  red  clouds." 
Even  after  Worth  and  Forbach  the  Regent  clung  to 
the  hope  of  victory.  She  took  no  steps  to  have 
her  personal  property  removed  from  the  Tuileries, 
except  that,  by  the  advice  of  Madame  Carette,  she 
sent  her  jewels  to  a  banker's.  Her  300  dresses  were 
left  hanging  in  the  wardrobes,  and  it  was  M.  d'Heris- 
son  who  superintended  the  packing  of  them  after  the 
Empress  had  fled. 

In  the  closing  weeks  of  her  Regency  Eugenie 
must  have  had  few  thoughts  to  spare  for  dress. 
She  wore  all  day  a  simple  gown  of  black  cashmere, 
with  linen  collar  and  cuffs.  Much  of  her  time 
was  spent  in  receiving  visitors  in  the  round  saloon, 
that  gay  drawing-room  with  panels  painted  by 
Charles  Chaplin,  illustrating  the  loves  of  a  violet 
and  a  rose.  Impudent  intruders  forced  themselves 
in  among  the  callers,  and  it  is  said  that  on  31  August 
a  horde  of  hungry  suppliants,  tired  of  waiting  in 
the  ante-chambers,  pushed  their  way  into  the  private 
drawing-room  and  ate  the  Empress's  luncheon. 

The  month  of  August  rolled  away  in  a  dreadful 
suspense.     The    black    sky    was    illuminated    from 

213 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

time  to  time  by  a  vivid  lightning-flash,  but  the  clouds 
gathered  ever  more  threateningly  over  the  doomed 
nation.  The  Governor  prepared  for  a  siege  of  Paris 
by  sending  the  treasures  of  the  Louvre,  the  Crown 
diamonds,  and  the  flags  of  the  Invalides  to  Brest, 
where  they  lay  ready  for  shipment.  Strange  crimes 
were  reported  from  the  provinces,  a  diseased  sus- 
piciousness possessed  the  peasantry,  and  every 
foreigner  was  regarded  as  a  spy  or  traitor.  One  un- 
fortunate man  was  burnt  alive  in  the  Dordogne 
district  by  a  group  of  excited  fanatics. 

The  state  of  the  country  at  that  time  reminds  us 
of  Bunyan's  words,  "  Over  that  valley  hang  the  dis- 
couraging clouds  of  confusion ;  death  also  does 
always  spread  his  wings  over  it.  In  a  word,  it  is 
every  whit  dreadful,  being  altogether  without  order." 
We  can  cheer  ourselves,  as  we  read,  with  the  thought 
of  the  rapid  revival  of  France  after  the  war.  Pre- 
vost-Paradol  was  wrong  when  he  prophesied  in  1868 
that  an  unsuccessful  war  would  be  the  tomb  of  French 
greatness.  "  We  shall  be  reduced,"  he  wrote,  "  to 
living  on  our  past  glory.  We  shall  figure  as  a  memory 
among  the  Great  Powers,  wearying  Europe  with 
recollections  of  Louis  XIV  and  Napoleon,  as  Spain 
flings  down  in  the  inattentive  Chancelleries  of  Europe 
the  names  of  Philip  II  and  Charles  V."  This  pre- 
diction was  falsified  within  five  years  of  the  war. 
But  Eugenie  was  far  away  when  the  sun  rose  upon 
the  valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death. 

In  her  care  for  the  wounded  the  full  tenderness  of 
her  nature  was  revealed.  The  salons  of  the  Tuileries 
were  transformed  into  hospital  wards,  and  whenever 

214 


The  First  News  of  Sedan 

she  could  snatch  a  brief  respite  from  the  cares  of 
State,  the  Empress  was  found  by  the  bedsides  of  the 
sick  and  dying.     Ah,  how  keenly  she  must  in  these 
days  have  regretted  her  rash  words  of  July  :   "  War 
is  inevitable  if  the  honour  of  France  is  to  be  saved  !  " 
The  final  tragedy  was  not  long  delayed.     The  last 
days  of  August  dragged  out  in  a  suspense  so  torturing 
that  many  must  have  thought  the  pangs  of  death 
on  the  battlefield  would  have   been    more    easily 
borne.     The  first  unofficial  news  of  the  disaster  at 
Sedan  reached  M.   David,  the  Minister  of  Public 
Works,  on  the  afternoon  of  2  September.     It  came 
in  a  cypher  letter  from  Brussels,  and  ran  as  follows  : 
"  A  great  disaster.     MacMahon  killed,  the  Emperor 
a  prisoner.     I  do  not  know  where  the  Prince  Im- 
perial is."     The  tidings  were  broken  to  the  Empress 
by  M.  David,  and  late  that  night,  on  the  Solferino 
Bridge,  the  full  extent  of  the  disaster  was  communi- 
cated to  M.   Thiers.     On  Saturday,  3  September, 
there  was  still  no  official  information  in  Paris,  but 
the  gloomiest  reports  were  circulating.     The  friends 
of  the  dynasty  were  considering  in  secret  how  much 
could   be   saved    from    the  threatening  shipwreck. 
Prosper  Merimee,  then  within  a  month  of  his  death, 
tottering  and  feeble,  was  despatched  to  M.  Thiers 
with  a  despairing  appeal.     "  You,"  he  said,  "  have 
it  in  your  power  to  do  a  great  service.     You  care 
nothing  about  dynasties,  but  only  for  France.     The 
Emperor  is  a  prisoner.     There  remain  only  a  woman 
and   a    child.     What   an   opportunity   there    is    of 
establishing  representative  government   now   on  a 
sure  basis  !  '      M.  Thiers  refused  to  go  to  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Empress  ;   he  would  not  even  advise  the 

215 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

abdication  of  the  Emperor.  "  A  friend,  a  trusted 
friend,  could  alone  venture  on  such  a  suggestion." 
Other  messages  were  sent  to  him,  but  he  declined  to 
go  to  the  Tuileries. 

M.  Thiers,  in  his  description  of  the  interview,  said  : 
"  M.  Merimee  was  one  of  the  most  gallant  men  living, 
one  of  the  cleverest  and  best  I  ever  knew.  He  was 
devoted  to  the  Empress,  and  gave  her  wise  advice." 

The  icy  hardness  of  the  statesman  towards  an  un- 
fortunate lady  is  painfully  evident  in  these  negotia- 
tions. His  mind  was  full  of  bitter  memories.  "  They 
have  treated  me  like  an  enemy,"  he  said,  "  and  I 
was  not  an  enemy."  To  the  Comte  d'Haussonville, 
after  telling  of  his  meeting  with  Merimee,  M.  Thiers 
said  :  "  Yesterday  evening  a  Spaniard  who  is  an 
intimate  friend  of  the  Empress  came  to  see  me,  with 
the  evident  intention  of  speaking  to  me  on  her  be- 
half. I  avoided  all  private  talk  with  him,  and  I 
think  that,  without  giving  any  offence,  I  shall  hence- 
forth be  spared  any  further  proposals  from  the 
Tuileries." 

Thiers  summed  up  his  judgment  of  the  Empress 
in  these  words  to  M.  d'Haussonville  :  "  She  has  be- 
haved well  on  the  throne.  There  is  levity  in  her 
character,  but  there  are  pride  and  ambition  as  well. 
In  moments  of  distress  she  dreams  of  sacrificing  her 
husband  to  save  her  child."  Through  a  mutual 
friend,  M.  d'Ayguesvives,  Thiers  allowed  the  Em- 
press to  know,  after  Sedan,  that  he  did  not  consider 
it  advisable  that  she  should  remain  in  Paris. 

The  anguish  of  expectation  intensified  as  the  hours 
went  on.  The  capitulation  of  the  army  at  Sedan 
was  known  to  all  Europe  outside  France.     That  very 

216 


The  Last  Night  at   the  Tuileries 

day  Bismarck  was  writing  to  his  wife  an  account  of 
his  interview  with  the  fallen  Emperor.  "  We  went," 
he  says,  "  into  a  lowly  workman's  house.  I  had  it 
examined  by  Carl,  who  reported  it  to  be  poor  and 
unclean.  '  N'importe,'  said  Napoleon,  and  I  climbed 
with  him  a  shaky,  narrow  flight  of  stairs.  In  a  room 
ten  feet  square  with  a  pine  table  and  two  rush  chairs 
we  sat  one  hour  ;  the  others  remained  downstairs. 
A  powerful  contrast  to  our  last  meeting  of  1867  at 
the  Tuileries.  Our  conversation  was  constrained, 
for  I  did  not  wish  to  touch  upon  things  that  must 
painfully  affect  the  man  thrown  down  by  God's 
mighty  hand." 

Late  in  the  afternoon  the  Minister  of  the  Interior 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Empress  the  expected 
despatch  from  her  husband.  It  contained  these 
words  :  "  The  army  is  defeated  and  captive  ;  I  my- 
self am  a  prisoner." 

We  scarcely  dare  imagine  what  the  feelings  of  the 
Empress  must  have  been  on  her  last  night  at  the 
Tuileries.  The  sob  of  agony  over  the  losses  of  the 
fatherland  which  passed  shudderingly  through  Paris 
and  the  provinces  was  but  the  echo  of  her  deeper 
sorrow.  She  had  in  old  days  been  the  heroine  of 
the  army,  and  there  were  gallant  officers  now  lying 
low  on  the  fields  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  whose  hands 
she  had  lately  clasped,  and  whose  gay  promises  of 
success  were  still  in  her  ears.  For  the  private  sol- 
diers— "  les  antes  les  plus  delaissces  " — none  grieved 
more  truly  than  the  Empress  who  had  called  herself 
the  mother  of  her  people.  And  when  the  flower  had 
been  laid  upon  the  humblest  bier,  it  was  not  granted 
to  Eugenie  to  console  herself  with  the  wives  and 

217 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

mothers  of  the  dead.  He  to  whom  her  girlhood's 
trust  and  affection  had  been  yielded  was  a  prisoner 
in  the  enemy's  country  ;  her  little  son  was  a  fugitive 
beyond  the  Belgian  frontier.  She,  alone  and  deso- 
late, must  meet  on  the  morrow  the  infuriated  mob 
of  Paris.  We  can  picture  that  lovely  tear-stained 
face  looking  into  the  chamber  of  destiny,  and  hear 
the  voice  of  Eugenie  asking  the  old-world  question, 
"  Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ?  "  There  was  com- 
fort for  France  in  the  answer,  but  for  her  no  comfort, 
no  promise  of  the  future.  Victor  Hugo's  words  on 
Othello  were  to  prove  true  of  Napoleon  III — "  La 
nuit  a  vite  fait  signe  a  la  mort." 


218 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE   DISCROWNED   EMPRESS 

Loneliness  of  Eugenie  in  the  crisis — The  morning  of  September 
Fourth — The  Empress  and  General  Trochu — The  threatening 
crowds — Revolution — Flight  of  the  Empress — Strangers  in  the 
empty  palace — Dr.  Evans  to  the  rescue — Sir  John  Burgoyne's 
yacht — The  Exile's  Psalm. 

ON  the  morning  of  3  September,  before  the  fatal 
telegram  arrived,  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  had 
called  at  the  Tuileries  to  inquire  for  the  Empress. 
He  had  lately  returned  from  London,  where  he  had 
been  welcomed  at  the  end  of  July  with  almost  regal 
honours.  The  freedom  of  the  City  was  presented  to 
him  in  a  gold  box,  a  fete  was  offered  him  at  the 
Crystal  Palace.  Mr.  Gladstone  proposed  his  health 
at  the  Duke  of  Sutherland's  dinner,  and  the  Prince 
of  Wales  was  a  guest  at  the  ball  which  followed. 
Such  scenes  must  have  contrasted  mournfully  in  his 
mind  with  the  aspect  of  desperate,  stricken  Paris. 
The  gloomiest  whispers  were  circulating.  It  was 
said  that  the  faubourgs  were  astir  and  that  armed 
mobs,  half  maddened  by  suspense  and  by  the  pre- 
monition of  a  horrible  overthrow,  were  preparing  to 
march  on  the  Palais  Bourbon  and  proclaim  a  Re- 
public. Emile  de  Girardin  met  de  Lesseps  and  told 
him  that  the  news  of  the  disaster,  though  not  yet 
officially  announced,  was  but  too  surely  verified. 
This  eminent  publicist,  whom  the  Empress  called 

219 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

"  the  grave-digger  of  dynasties,"  gave  her  the  same 
advice  that  he  gave  to  Louis  Philippe  in  1848 — 
"  Abdicate  and  summon  M.  Thiers." 

"  M.  Thiers/'  said  the  Empress,  "  is  a  trump  that 
is  always  turning  up  in  your  game." 

At  the  Tuileries,  when  Lesseps  arrived,  the  Regent 
was  in  council  with  her  ministers.  He  advised  that 
she  should  delegate  her  powers  to  the  Chambers,  and 
invite  them  to  form  a  government  of  national  de- 
fence. At  dejeuner  a  general  said  to  him,  "  Well, 
M.  de  Lesseps,  what  do  you  think  of  the  situation  ?  " 
"  I  think,  my  dear  General,  that  this  is  the  last 
dejeuner  you  will  eat  at  the  Tuileries."  The  meal 
was  brief  and  silent,  and  as  the  guests  were  leaving 
the  table  a  chamberlain  whispered  to  Lesseps : 
"  Things  are  looking  bad,  are  they  not  ?  I  think 
we  shall  not  be  needed  any  longer  here.  Could  you 
get  me  a  place  on  the  Suez  Canal  ?  " 

Among  the  servants  of  the  Tuileries  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation  was  early  awake.  Petty  pilfer- 
ing began  ;  statuettes  and  other  small  portable  orna- 
ments disappeared.  It  is  fair  to  say  that  the  ordi- 
nary service  of  the  palace  continued  till  within  an 
hour  of  the  Empress's  flight,  and  M.  d'Herisson,  who 
entered  late  on  the  afternoon  of  her  departure,  was 
questioned  about  his  business  by  a  footman  in  livery. 
But  after  2  September  the  bonds  of  discipline  were 
loosened  as  if  by  some  natural  convulsion.  The 
volcano  of  war  was  pouring  forth  fire  and  smoke 
and  lava,  so  that  the  air  was  darkened,  and  the 
earth  beneath  men's  feet  became  as  scorching  ashes. 
Each  thought  first  of  his  own  safety.  The  loneliness 
of  the  Empress  was  terribly  apparent  in  this  hour. 


220 


The  News  of  Sedan 

Some  of  her  time  was  necessarily  employed  in  tearing 
up  quantities  of  private  papers  which  must  not  be 
allowed  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  revolutionary 
mob.  It  is  said  that  the  fragments  were  put  into 
baths  and  hot  water  poured  upon  them,  to  convert 
the  whole  mass  into  pulp. 

During  the  brief  night  sitting  of  the  Legislative 
Body  (3-4  September)  Jules  Favre  announced  that 
on  the  following  day  he  would  move  a  resolution  in 
three  sections.  The  first  declared  that  Louis  Napo- 
leon Bonaparte  and  his  dynasty  were  to  be  deprived 
of  the  powers  conferred  upon  them  by  the  Constitu- 
tion. "  The  motion/'  says  M.  de  la  Gorce,  "  was 
less  surprising  than  the  torpor  with  which  it  was  re- 
ceived. Among  all  those  who  had  lived  upon  the 
Empire,  among  the  ministers  themselves,  there  was 
no  up-leap  of  honour,  no  awakening  of  fidelity,  no 
outburst  of  wrath.  As  passively  as  they  had  bent 
under  the  master's  yoke,  men  bent  under  the  Revo- 
lution. Over  the  vanquished  Empire  this  silence 
brooded  like  a  sentence  of  death." 

In  the  dawn  of  Sunday  morning,  4  September, 
Paris  awoke  to  find  its  walls  placarded  with  great 
white  bills  announcing  the  catastrophe.  The  cry 
"  Napoleon  Third  a  prisoner  !  "  echoed  and  re-echoed 
through  the  morning  silence.  In  the  wealthy  quar- 
ters of  the  Champs  Elysees,  in  the  houses  of  diplo- 
matists and  financiers,  anxious  consultations  were 
carried  on  behind  closed  blinds.  The  nobility  of  the 
Faubourg  Saint-Germain,  who  supported  the  Princes 
of  Orleans  and  had  held  aloof  from  Bonapartist 
triumphs,  must  have  been  trembling  that  morning 
for  their  own  security.     Revolution  was  known  to 


221 


The  Empress  and  the  War  of  1870 

be  imminent ;  even  the  deaf  might  hear  the  onrush 
of  that  mighty  tide.  Thousands  of  homes  had  re- 
ceived the  warning  which  the  fisherman  of  the  Solway 
gave  to  Darsie  Latimer  in  Redgauntlet — "  He  that 
dreams  on  the  bed  of  the  Solway  may  wake  in  the 
next  world.  The  sky  threatens  a  blast  that  will 
bring  in  the  waves  three  feet  abreast." 

"  Napoleon  Third  a  prisoner  !  "  They  heard  that 
cry  in  the  working-class  districts  of  Belleville,  and 
Menilmontant,  and  Montmartre,  and  swiftly,  as  by 
some  preconceived  arrangement,  the  masses  prepared 
for  action.  Women  and  children  in  great  numbers 
accompanied  the  men  for  some  distance,  but  as  the 
processions  approached  the  centre  of  the  town  care- 
ful fathers  saw  that  the  mothers  and  little  ones  were 
turned  back.  This  was  no  assemblage  of  the  criminal 
classes,  though  criminal  elements  were  present,  nor 
was  it  a  furious,  vengeful  multitude,  athirst  for  blood 
and  pillage.  Calmly,  inexorably  as  messengers  of 
fate,  these  thousands  drew  towards  the  Place  de  la 
Concorde  and  the  Palais  Bourbon.  France  had  been 
humbled  in  the  dust  through  the  Emperor's  fault, 
her  best  soldiers  were  captives  that  day  on  the  little 
peninsula  of  Iges,  to  the  north-west  of  Sedan.  Well, 
perhaps,  that  Paris  did  not  realize  the  full  extent  of 
their  sufferings.  Well  that  the  crowds  did  not  know 
that  on  this  very  Fourth  of  September  the  wretched 
Commander-in-Chief,  Wimpffen,  troubling  little 
about  the  fate  of  the  army,  was  to  hasten  off  to 
Stuttgart.  Incompetent  generals  were  out  of  reach 
of  punishment,  but  Napoleon  could  be  made  to  pay 
the  price  of  his  mistakes  to  the  uttermost  farthing. 
The  crown  of  France  had  fallen  for  ever  from  his  brow. 


222 


The   Empress  and  General  Trochu 

"  Napoleon  Third  a  prisoner  !  "  Eugenie  must 
have  heard  that  cry  in  the  inner  chambers  of  the 
Tuileries.  We  may  trust  that  she  was  mercifully 
stunned  by  the  very  awfulness  of  the  stroke. 

What  says  the  body  when  they  spring 
Some  monstrous  torture-engine's  whole 
Strength  on  it  ?     No  more,  says  the  soul. 

Yet  she  had  energy  to  carry  out  the  mechanical 
duties  of  the  hour.  Before  meeting  her  councillors 
at  8.30  a.m.  she  had  visited  the  hospital  for  the 
wounded  in  the  Salle  des  Spectacles  at  the  Tuileries, 
and  had  found  time  to  despatch  to  her  aged  mother 
at  Madrid  a  telegram  announcing  the  disaster  at 
Sedan,  and  ending  with  these  words  :  "  Keep  up 
your  courage,  dear  mother.  If  France  wishes  to  de- 
fend herself,  she  can.  I  shall  do  my  duty.  Your 
unhappy  daughter,  Eugenie." 

The  one  man  in  Paris  who  might  have  helped  the 
Empress  had  been  irrevocably  alienated.  The  su- 
preme mistake  which  she  committed  during  her 
Regency  in  1870  lay  in  her  treatment  of  the  Governor 
of  Paris,  General  Trochu.  She  ought  to  have  wel- 
comed him  as  the  Empire's  last  defender.  Through 
some  lamentable  folly  the  proud  soldier  was  received 
at  the  Tuileries  in  August  with  insult  and  disdain. 
He  bore  with  him,  from  the  camp  at  Chalons,  an 
order  from  the  Emperor  naming  him  Governor  of 
the  capital.  Eugenie  was  displeased  with  the  ap- 
pointment, which  seemed  to  her,  naturally,  perhaps, 
to  encroach  on  the  powers  of  the  Regency.  She 
clung  to  her  chief  minister,  Palikao,  as  a  faithful  and 
loyal   Imperialist.     Trochu   was  known  to  support 

the  dynastic  claims  of  the  Princes  of  Orleans. 

223 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

Our  sympathies,  to  some  extent,  must  be  with 
General  Trochu.  His  memoirs,  published  in  1896, 
should  be  studied  carefully  for  the  record  of  this 
time.  Bitter  as  is  the  tone  of  certain  passages,  he 
goes  out  of  his  way  to  praise  the  stainless  private 
character  and  fearless  courage  of  the  Regent.  Those 
who  have  examined  most  closely  the  literature  of 
calumny  which  dates  from  the  fall  of  the  Second 
Empire,  can  best  appreciate  the  motives  which  led 
Trochu  to  insert  the  following  sentences  in  his  book  : 
"  Neither  the  public  notoriety  of  the  Emperor's 
lapses  from  conjugal  fidelity,  nor  the  example  and 
seduction  of  that  brilliant  though  very  mixed  Court 
over  which  she  presided,  in  the  splendour  of  her  in- 
comparable beauty,  had  prevailed  to  lure  her  for  one 
moment  from  the  straightest  and  most  honourable 
path  of  personal  conduct.  The  most  insolent  and 
daring  opponents  of  the  Empire  have  never  breathed 
upon  her  with  their  calumnies.' ' 

I  regard  these  words  of  General  Trochu  as,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  chivalrous  tribute  to  the  fallen  Em- 
press which  history  records.  For  we  pass  on  at 
once,  in  reading  his  pages,  to  the  account  of  that 
meeting  in  which  he  was  received  by  her  as  a  con- 
spirator and  traitor.  She  stood  before  him  "  with 
burning  eyes,  and  brilliantly  coloured  cheeks."  Her 
nervousness  was  painfully  apparent,  and  it  is  said, 
indeed  (though  not  by  Trochu),  that  she  sustained 
herself  during  these  dreadful  weeks  on  strong  coffee, 
and  found  rest  only  by  the  aid  of  heavy  doses  of 
chloral.  "  General,"  said  Eugenie  at  the  beginning 
of  the  interview,  "  don't  you  think  that  in  this 
supreme  crisis  we  ought   to   recall   the   Princes   of 

224 


Trochu  and  the  Court  Party- 
Orleans  ?  "  Such  words  dismayed  every  hearer. 
Admiral  Jurien  de  la  Graviere  hastened  to  inter- 
vene. He  led  Trochu  towards  the  Empress.  "  You 
two/'  he  said,  "  are  fitted  to  understand  each  other. 
Give  your  full  confidence  to  the  General,  Madame  ; 
he  deserves  it." 

Trochu  says  that  during  the  whole  interview  the 
Empress  appeared  to  him  full  of  courage,  though  he 
distinguishes  between  her  courage  exalte  and  the 
soldier's  courage  raisonne. 

He  closes  his  account  of  the  interview  with  the 
remark  that  although  he  had  pardoned  the  Empress 
even  before  the  tragedy  in  Zululand,  he  cannot  forget 
"  that  in  the  hands  of  that  Providence  which  was 
resolved  to  chasten  my  country,  the  Empress  Eugenie 
was  the  chief  instrument  of  the  final  ruin." 

In  the  weeks  which  followed  that  unfortunate 
meeting  Trochu  was  treated  by  the  Court  party  as 
an  enemy.  Palikao  affected  to  ignore  him,  and 
asked  a  subordinate,  General  Soumain,  for  informa- 
tion as  to  the  measures  which  would  be  taken  to 
ensure  public  safety  if  a  revolution  should  break  out 
in  Paris.  Soumain  carried  the  letter  to  Trochu.  Is 
it  surprising  that  when  the  Empress  repeatedly  sum- 
moned the  Governor  to  the  Tuileries  on  the  evening 
of  3  September  he  declined  to  obey,  and  appeared 
for  a  formal  interview  in  presence  of  the  ministers 
only  on  the  morning  of  4  September  ?  He  returned 
to  the  Louvre  and  waited  there  till  the  Republican 
Government  called  him  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  His 
appointment  as  President,  with  full  military  powers 
for  the  national  defence,  followed  immediately.  Dr. 
Evans,  in  his  recent  memoirs,  shows  that  the  exiled 

225 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

Empress  regarded  Trochu  as  a  traitor.  History 
throws  back  the  responsibility  for  his  defection  on 
her  own  ill-advised  behaviour. 

At  her  last  Cabinet  Council,  held  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, 4  September,  the  Empress  behaved  with  courage 
and  dignity.  A  deputation  from  the  Chamber  ar- 
rived with  the  request  that  she  should  resign  the 
throne,  and  at  the  same  time  appoint  a  Commission 
to  carry  on  the  Government.  "  I  cannot  leave  my 
post  in  the  midst  of  this  danger,"  replied  Eugenie, 
"  for  that  would  be  desertion.  I  believe  that  the 
one  wise  and  patriotic  course  for  the  representatives 
of  the  country  is  to  rally  round  me,  to  set  aside 
questions  of  home  politics,  and  to  concentrate  their 
whole  energies  on  resistance  to  the  invaders."  Then 
she  added  :  "If  resistance  is  impossible,  might  not 
my  intervention  be  valuable  in  obtaining  less  rigorous 
conditions  of  peace  ?  "  "I  accept  deposition,"  the 
Empress  declared,  "  but  I  refuse  to  be  a  deserter. 
If  the  preservation  of  my  power  is  considered  an 
obstacle  to  the  defence,  would  it  be  too  much  for  a 
woman  who  has  of  her  own  free  will  descended  from 
the  throne  to  ask  the  Chamber  to  grant  her  the  right 
to  remain  in  Paris  ?  I  care  not  where  I  live,  or  what 
rank  I  hold,  if  only  I  may  share  the  suffering,  the 
peril,  the  anguish  of  our  besieged  capital." 

To  this  appeal  there  was  no  response.  Workmen 
were  already  knocking  down  the  gilded  eagles  on 
the  gates  of  the  Tuileries.  The  crowd  outside  the 
gardens  had  become  dense  and  menacing.  A  young 
man  burst  into  the  Council  Room  and  cried,  "  They 
are  there,  on  the  Place  de  la  Concorde."  Still  the 
deputation  pressed  the  Empress  to  yield.     At  last, 

226 


Abdication  Demanded 

like  Queen  Mary  at  Lochleven,  she  surrendered  to 
imperative  necessity.  The  messengers  from  the 
Chamber  addressed  her  with  consideration,  but  be- 
hind them  the  Revolution  roared  and  thundered. 
Doubtless  she  felt,  with  Queen  Mary,  "  The  evils  we 
cannot  resist  we  must  submit  to — I  will  subscribe 
these  parchments  with  such  liberty  of  choice  as  my 
condition  permits  me.  Were  I  on  yonder  shore,  with 
a  fleet  jennet  and  ten  good  and  loyal  knights  around 
me,  I  would  subscribe  my  sentence  of  eternal  con- 
demnation as  soon  as  the  resignation  of  my  throne. 
But  here  " — in  Lochleven,  said  Mary,  in  raging  Paris, 
Eugenie  must  have  felt — "  I  have  no  freedom  of 
choice."  The  Empress  was  not  asked  to  sign  her 
abdication  of  the  Regency,  but  a  promise  was  wrung 
from  her  that  she  would  consent  to  such  a  step  if  her 
ministers  desired  it  in  the  interests  of  the  country. 

The  Ministry,  like  the  Empress,  were  helpless  be- 
fore the  mob.  The  Chamber  was  invaded,  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  Republic  took  place  that  afternoon 
at  the  Hotel  de  Ville. 

We  need  not  linger  on  the  oft-told  story  except  as 
it  concerns  the  fallen  Regent.  Round  the  Tuileries, 
between  two  and  three  o'clock,  the  excited  crowds 
pressed  so  closely  that  the  railings  were  nearly  forced 
in.  The  Imperial  Guard  was  massed  in  front  of  the 
chief  entrance,  leading  from  the  private  gardens  into 
the  palace.  The  Empress  asked  General  Mellinet,  an 
old  Crimean  hero,  if  it  would  be  possible  to  defend 
the  house  without  bloodshed.  "  I  fear  not,"  he  re- 
plied. "  But  I,"  she  said,  "  am  determined  that  not 
one  drop  of  blood  shall  be  shed  for  me  or  mine." 

Victorien  Sardou  and  several  friends  went  to  par- 

227 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

ley  with  the  officers  of  the  Guard,  and  requested  that 
the  soldiers  might  be  withdrawn,  as  the  Tuileries  be- 
longed to  the  people.  After  a  prolonged  pause, 
General  Mellinet  and  M.  de  Lesseps  came  out  to 
speak  to  the  crowd.  The  Imperial  Guard  was  seen 
to  withdraw  from  the  doorway,  and  the  men  who 
had  been  shrieking  at  the  top  of  their  voices,  "  Down 
with  the  Spaniard  !■"  "  Long  live  the  Republic  !  " 
now  watched  in  breathless  expectation  for  the  event 
which  followed.  The  Imperial  flag  was  hauled  down 
from  the  palace  roof.  "  Gentlemen,"  said  the 
general,  "  the  Tuileries  are  empty  ;  the  Empress  is 
gone.  But  it  is  my  duty  to  protect  the  palace,  and 
I  count  upon  you  to  help  me." 

The  National  Guards  now  emerged  from  the  Tuil- 
eries, and  were  drawn  up  in  double  file  in  front  of  the 
buildings.  The  crowd,  which  an  hour  before  had 
been  threatening  to  tear  down  the  very  walls  which 
sheltered  the  Regent,  rolled  back  into  the  Place  de 
Carrousel,  panting  and  breathless  like  wild  creatures 
cheated  of  their  prey. 

What  meanwhile  had  happened  to  the  unfortunate 
lady  ?  She  was  not  utterly  deserted  by  the  friends 
of  happier  days.  Archbishop  Darboy  and  Princess 
d'Essling  had  made  an  effort  to  reach  her,  but  their 
carriages  were  turned  back  by  the  mob.  Prince 
Metternich  and  M.  Nigra,  the  Austrian  and  Italian 
Ambassadors,  urged  upon  her  the  necessity  of  flight. 
Granier  de  Cassagnac  tells  that  some  one  led  her  to 
a  window  and  showed  her  the  crowds  converging  on 
the  palace.  She  looked  fixedly  at  them,  and  then 
said  with  grave  dignity,  "  I  will  not  give  them  a 
second   queen   to   insult."     Her   reference   was   to 

228 


Eugenie  leaves  the  Palace 

Marie  Antoinette,  that  luckless  consort  whom  Eu- 
genie sometimes  called  "  mon  type." 

About  half-past  three  M.  Pietri,  the  Prefect  of 
Police,  rushed  in  crying,  "  Nous  sommes  trahis  !  We 
cannot  resist,  the  crowds  are  beating  down  the  rail- 
ings. The  one  hope  for  Her  Majesty  lies  in  im- 
mediate flight." 

The  Prefect  and  the  diplomatists  had  reason  to  fear 
that  if  the  assailants  once  broke  in  Eugenie  could  not 
escape  with  life.  "  Come,"  cried  Metternich  and 
Nigra ;  "  there  is  barely  time  to  fly." 

The  Empress  was  literally  pushed  out  of  the  Tuil- 
eries  by  her  friends.  The  Austrian  Ambassador 
gave  her  his  arm,  M.  Nigra  led  her  companion, 
Madame  Lebreton,  who  alone  of  all  the  ladies  of  the 
Court  was  to  share  her  flight.  The  little  party 
hastened  through  the  galleries  of  the  Tuileries  which 
overlooked  the  Seine  and  passed  into  the  galleries 
of  the  Louvre.  They  emerged  on  the  Place  Saint 
Germain  l'Auxerrois,  which  was  thronged  with 
people.  It  was  necessary  to  wait  while  a  troop  of 
noisy  demonstrators  poured  through  the  arched 
passage  which  leads  from  the  inner  court  of  the 
Louvre  to  the  Place.  M.  Nigra  told  in  after  days 
that  while  standing  here  he  offered  his  arm  to  the 
weary  Empress.  As  an  uproarious  band  passed  by 
shouting,  "A  bas  l'Espagnole !  "  "  Vive  la  Repub- 
lique !  "  Nigra  asked  her  if  she  felt  afraid.  "Not 
at  all,"  was  the  reply.  "  You  are  holding  my  arm  ; 
do  you  feel  me  tremble  ?  " 

A  closed  cab  was  called,  but  before  the  ladies 
could  get  into  it  a  street  boy  shouted,  "  There's  the 
Empress  !  '      Nigra  silenced  him  hastily.     Metter- 

22IJ 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

nich  called  to  the  driver  the  address  of  M.  Besson,  a 
Councillor  of  State,  who  lived  in  the  Boulevard 
Haussmann,  and  the  cab  rolled  away.  There  is  no 
record  of  the  comments  made  by  the  two  diplo- 
matists when  they  had  cast  the  poor  Empress  adrift 
on  the  wild  sea  of  Paris.  The  motives  of  Metter- 
nich  and  Nigra  in  thus  speeding  the  parting  Sove- 
reign were  strongly  suspected  by  the  Bonapartists. 
Was  it  in  the  interests  of  Austria  and  Italy  that  the 
downfall  of  the  Empire  should  be  consummated  ? 
Were  there  compromising  promises,  offers  of  aid  in 
certain  contingencies,  which  would  all  be  forgotten 
when  the  Regent  was  out  of  the  Tuileries  ?  Prob- 
ably the  Ambassadors  were  actuated  by  motives  of 
simple  humanity  and  believed  that  they  were  saving 
the  Empress's  life.  They  might,  however,  have 
placed  her  under  the  shelter  of  some  friendly  roof. 

The  Tuileries  were  empty,  and  within  the  next 
few  days  many  curious  eyes  inspected  Eugenie's 
private  rooms.  M.  d'Herisson,  in  his  Journal  dyun 
Officier  d'Ordonnance,  describes  his  conversations 
with  the  distracted  servants. 

"  She  has  gone  without  even  a  pockethand- 
kerchief,"  sobbed  one  of  the  chamber-maids.  On 
the  Regent's  bureau  he  found  a  black  morocco 
dressing-bag  containing  some  meagre  provision  for 
the  journey,  and  near  it  was  a  little  lace-trimmed 
handkerchief,  all  soaked  with  tears.  In  the  bag  he 
saw  two  nightgowns,  very  simply  made,  without 
embroidery.  The  only  mark  that  distinguished 
them  from  the  nightgear  of  a  bourgeoise  was  the 
letter  "  E  "  on  the  breast,  surmounted  by  a  crown. 
There  were  two  pairs  of  stockings  in  Scotch  wool, 

230 


The  Imperial  Lady's  Property 

four  handkerchiefs,  a  pair  of  boots,  two  collars,  and 
two  pairs  of  cuffs.  A  Parisian  maid-servant  going 
to  her  first  situation  could  not  have  been  more 
plainly  furnished,  and  even  these  trifling  supplies 
had  been  left  behind  in  the  hurry  of  the  flight. 

The  Comte  d'Herisson  undertook  the  troublesome 
task  of  packing  up  and  forwarding  to  the  Empress 
the  personal  effects  she  had  left  in  the  palace.  After 
the  contents  of  the  black  morocco  dressing-bag,  the 
treasures  of  the  garrets  must  have  considerably  sur- 
prised him.  In  one  drawer  he  found  fifty  parasols. 
One  was  of  mauve  silk  with  a  handle  of  tortoiseshell, 
another  of  white  lace  with  a  handle  of  solid  gold,  a 
third  of  cream  silk  with  an  ivory  stick,  wrought  with 
golden  bees.  Fifteen  chests  were  filled  with  the 
Imperial  lady's  wardrobe,  and  even  then  the  cup- 
boards in  the  attics  looked  as  full  as  before.  M. 
d'Herisson  gives  an  inventory  of  her  furs,  which  at 
that  time  were  in  summer  storage.  He  values 
them  at  600,000  francs,  and  the  total  contents  of 
the  wardrobe  at  4,000,000  francs.  It  is  hardly 
surprising  that  blunt  soldiers  like  General  Trochu 
should  complain  of  the  unparalleled  luxury  which 
the  Empress  introduced  into  French  society.  One 
despatch,  found  by  M.  d'Herisson  in  the  Tuileries, 
throws  a  vivid  light  backwards  on  the  war.  It  had 
been  written  by  the  Empress  to  her  husband.  "  Do 
not  think  of  returning  unless  you  wish  to  unloose  a 
frightful  revolution.  This  is  the  advice  of  Rouher 
and  Chevreau,  whom  I  have  seen  this  morning. 
People  would  say  that  you  were  fleeing  from  danger. 
Do  not  forget  how  his  return  from  the  Crimea  has 
pressed  like  a  dead  weight  on  the  whole  life  of  Prince 
Napoleon." 

2JI 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

M.  Jules  Claretie  also  describes  the  appearance  of 
the  deserted  palace.  "The  Empress's  rooms/'  he 
says,  "  revealed  the  secret  of  the  extravagance  and 
contradictions  of  her  nature.  In  her  library  the 
works  of  Proudhon,  which  she  pretended  to  read 
and  which  she  certainly  did  not  understand,  stood 
side  by  side  with  little  sprightly  novels  taken  from 
the  library  of  Marie  Antoinette  in  the  Trianon  and 
works  of  mystical  piety.  Everything  around  her 
was  ultramundane  and  at  the  same  time  ultra- 
clerical.  Relics  and  the  bones  of  saints  were  dis- 
played upon  the  walls,  under  ceilings  on  which  Loves 
were  flying.  Medallions  in  the  style  of  Boucher 
showed  female  busts,  and  not  ten  paces  off,  bent  and 
folded  like  a  screen,  was  a  white  confessional  with 
gilded  ornaments.  This  singular  blending  of  poudre 
de  riz  and  incense  was  absolutely  characteristic  of 
her  Spanish  piety." 

Henri  Rochefort  says  that  when  he  and  Gambetta 
went  to  the  Tuileries  on  5  September  they  found  a 
case  of  jewels  on  a  table,  and  in  the  table-drawer 
50,000  francs  in  gold. 

The  feelings  of  English  Liberals  at  the  fall  of  the 
Empire  were  well  expressed  by  the  Spectator  ;  "  We 
do  not  wonder  at  the  delirium  of  joy  which  seized 
Paris,  and  seemed  to  sneering  but  truthful  English 
correspondents  so  portentously  childish.  It  had 
seemed  so  strong,  that  tyranny,  so  compact,  so 
certain  to  endure,  and  it  had  passed  away  in  a  day, 
without  the  loss  of  a  life.  People  kissed  each  other 
and  danced  and  knocked  off  eagles'  heads.  Are  we 
sure  the  Israelites  danced  no  carmagnole  when  those 
trumpets  worked  their  work  on  Jericho,  and  the 

232 


Dr.   Evans  to  the   Rescue 

impregnable  city,  so  defiant  and  so  strong,  so  im- 
possible of  capture,  lay  open  to  their  march  ?  " 

We  know  how,  after  knocking  vainly  at  several 
doors,  the  fugitives  decided  to  drive  to  the  house  of 
Dr.  Evans,  the  American  Court  dentist.  He  proved 
worthy  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  him,  and  after 
one  last  night  in  Paris,  Eugenie,  with  Madame  Le- 
breton,  Dr.  Evans,  and  Dr.  Crane,  started  in  the  early 
hours  of  Monday  morning  for  the  coast. 

The  real  facts  of  the  Empress's  flight  were  not 
known  to  contemporaries.  Thus  the  Spectator  of 
10  September  said,  "  She  shook  hands  with  her 
ladies,  and  under  cover  of  a  thick  veil,  absolutely 
alone,  descended  into  the  street,  hailed  a  cab,  drove 
to  the  North-East  Railway  Station,  took  a  ticket  for 
Belgium,  and  reached  the  frontier  in  safety.  She 
remains  in  Belgium  for  the  present,  the  guest  of  a 
friend." 

The  Empress  travelled  as  an  invalid,  accompanied 
by  her  brother  (Dr.  Evans),  her  medical  attendant 
(Dr.  Crane),  and  her  nurse  (Madame  Lebreton). 
When  at  last  the  tired  lady  was  received  into  the 
motherly  protection  of  Mrs.  Evans  at  Deauville, 
she  sank  into  a  chair  and  sobbed  out,  "  Mon  Dieu, 
je  suis  sauvee." 

Her  flight  has  been  severely  judged  by  many 
writers,  and  it  has  even  been  suggested  that  if  she 
had  mounted  on  horseback  on  that  fatal  Sunday 
and  had  boldly  confronted  the  crowds,  the  charm 
of  her  personality  would  have  borne  down  all 
opposition.  She  could  hardly  be  blamed  for  fol- 
lowing the  advice  of  sagacious  and  experienced  men 
like  Metternich  and  Nigra,  who  were  also  personal 

233 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

friends.  The  Empress  was  in  much  greater  danger 
than  Princess  Clotilde,  with  whom  the  revolution- 
aries had  no  quarrel. 

In  September,  1870,  Sir  John  Burgoyne's  cutter- 
yacht  Gazelle  was  lying  in  the  harbour  at  Trouville. 
In  a  letter  to  Earl  Granville,  dated  8  September, 
Sir  John  tells  that  two  strange  gentlemen  came 
aboard  on  the  6th,  apparently  to  see  the  yacht. 
''They  suddenly  asked  me  to  take  on  board  im- 
mediately the  Empress  of  the  French  and  one  lady, 
as  she  was  in  immediate  danger  of  arrest,  and  this 
was  her  only  hope  of  escape." 

In  the  Century  Magazine  for  October,  1905,  Sir 
John  says  :  "  On  the  morning  of  6  September  two 
gentlemen  came  on  board.  One  of  them  asked  me 
if  I  was  going  to  England,  and  gave  me  his  card,  Dr. 
Thomas  W.  Evans,  Rue  de  la  Paix,  Paris.  He  then 
told  me  that  the  Empress  Eugenie  was  in  Deauville 
in  distress  and  danger,  and  asked  me  to  take  her  on 
board  the  yacht,  and  place  her  under  the  protection 
of  the  British  flag." 

Sir  John  doubted  the  story,  and  took  the  stranger 
to  the  cabin  to  speak  to  Lady  Burgoyne,  who  told 
him  that  Dr.  Evans  was  a  well-known  dentist.  Dr. 
Evans  informs  us  that  Sir  John's  first  words  on 
hearing  the  proposal  were,  "  I  regret,  gentlemen, 
that  I  am  unable  to  assist  you  in  this  matter."  The 
chivalrous  American  sought  to  move  him  by  pro- 
testations :  "Sir  John,  I  am  an  American,  and  in 
our  country  every  man  will  run  any  risk  for  a  woman, 
and  especially  for  a  lady  whose  life  is  in  danger.  I 
therefore,  when  Her  Majesty  applied  to  me  for  help, 
left  my  home  in  Paris,  and  all  that  it  contains,  with- 

234 


Sir  John   Burgoyne's  Yacht 

out  taking  the  least  thought  of  the  dangers  that  might 
come  in  my  way,  or  calculating  the  losses  I  might 
suffer." 

He  added  that  there  was  another  vessel  in  the 
basin  which  would  serve  his  purpose.  Sir  John  then 
hinted  that  the  little  yacht,  in  such  stormy  weather, 
might  not  prove  strong  enough  to  carry  a  sovereign 
lady  and  her  fortunes,  but  he  finally  consented  to 
submit  the  case  to  his  wife.  With  true  womanly 
feeling,  Lady  Burgoyne  instantly  agreed  that  the 
fugitive  Empress  should  be  taken  on  board.  "  Let 
her  come  to  us  to-night,  or  as  soon  as  she  can  safely 
do  so." 

1  At  midnight,"  Sir  John  wrote  to  Earl  Granville, 

'  I  met  by  appointment  two  ladies,  closely  veiled, 
one  of  whom  introduced  herself  to  me  as  the  Em- 
press. I  took  her  on  board  the  yacht,  and  her  only 
remark  was,  '  I  know  I  am  safe  now,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  an  Englishman.'  She  said,  '  Pauvre 
France  !  '  and  became  very  hysterical  for  a  time. 
Lady  Burgoyne  endeavoured  to  make  the  Empress 
as  comfortable  as  possible,  and  as,  notwithstanding 
it  was  blowing  a  strong  head  wind,  with  a  very 
heavy  sea,  it  was  so  necessary  that  I  should 
leave  France,  I  went  out  of  harbour  and  happily 
crossed  the  Channel,  and  landed  the  Empress  safe 
at  6  a.m." 

With    kindly    thoughtfulness    Sir    John    added, 

'  The  Empress  is  so  anxious  that  this  should  be  kept 
an  entire  secret  that  no  one  except  Lady  Burgoyne 
and  myself  knows  it  ;  and  I  trust  to  your  lordship's 
good  feeling  to  help  me  to  keep  it  secret." 

We   know   what   Earl   Granville   thought   of   the 

2J5 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

unhappy  lady's  flight  from  a  brief  reference  in  his 
biography.  "  Her  misfortune  is  great,  although  it 
is  much  owing  to  herself  :  Mexico,  Rome,  war  with 
Prussia." 

Wild  as  the  night  was,  Eugenie  never  thought  of 
lingering.  The  huntsmen,  she  felt,  were  on  her 
track,  and  even  here  at  Deauville  feeling  was  ex- 
cited against  the  Empire.  The  raging  sea  seemed 
to  her  less  terrible  than  the  cruel  hearts  of  men.  A 
police  agent  came  on  board  the  Gazelle  at  n  p.m. 
and  asked  to  see  an  English  yacht,  as  he  was  going 
to  Paris  next  morning.  Secrets  could  not  be  hidden 
on  such  a  tiny  craft,  but  luckily  the  Empress  did  not 
meet  her  host  on  the  quay  until  the  stroke  of  mid- 
night. It  was  a  narrow  escape,  and  one  can  under- 
stand her  hysterical  trembling  as  she  sat  with  Lady 
Burgoyne  in  the  cabin. 

The  spirits  of  the  Revolution  seemed  to  have 
power  over  the  waters,  for  the  voyage  was  accom- 
plished with  peril,  owing  to  wind  and  fog.  On  the 
night  of  7-8  September  the  battleship  Captain 
capsized  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  with  the  loss  of  five 
hundred  lives.  The  moon  which  gleamed  out  over 
the  storm-tossed  waves  of  the  Channel  shone  on 
scenes  of  death  and  horror.  At  4  a.m.  on  8  August, 
after  a  twenty-one  hours'  voyage,  the  Gazelle 
anchored  off  Ryde.  "  Her  Majesty,"  writes  Sir 
John  Burgoyne,  "  showed  an  example  to  all  by 
exhibiting  a  cool  courage  and  a  consideration  for 
others  which  won  the  esteem  of  every  one  on  board." 

M.  d'Herisson  has  stated  that  the  Empress  treated 
Sir  J.  Burgoyne  ungratefully,  and  that  Lady  Bur- 
goyne was  obliged,  a  year  later,  to  remind  her  of  the 

236 


The  Exile's  Psalm 

service  which  had  been  rendered.  Against  this  we 
may  set  Sir  John's  authoritative  statement  in  the 
Century  Magazine  :  "  Shortly  after  arriving  at 
Hastings  the  Empress  wrote  a  most  kind  letter  to 
Lady  Burgoyne,  and  sent  a  splendid  locket,  and  I 
was  thanked  for  my  small  service  by  His  Majesty  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  III  at  Chislehurst ;  and  as  a  fur- 
ther mark  of  the  Empress's  kindness  towards  me, 
when  I  was  married,  for  the  second  time,  in  October, 
1903,  she  presented  to  Lady  Burgoyne  and  me  a 
magnificent  silver-gilt  tea  and  coffee  service." 

Ingratitude  has  never  been  one  of  the  Empress 
Eugenie's  foibles. 

The  party  went  to  the  York  Hotel  at  Ryde,  and 
read  in  the  morning  papers  that  the  Prince  Im- 
perial had  arrived  at  Hastings.  Dr.  Evans  went  out 
to  make  inquiries.  "  Upon  my  return  to  the  hotel 
I  found  the  Empress  sitting  with  an  open  Bible  in 
her  hand.  Her  Majesty,  not  being  aware  of  the 
English  custom  of  keeping  in  the  rooms  of  hotels 
copies  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  told  me  that 
she  was  quite  surprised  to  find  this  book  upon  the 
table,  and  that,  regarding  its  presence  as  providential, 
she  had  opened  the  volume  to  see  upon  what  passage 
her  eyes  would  first  fall.  She  had  found  some  very 
hopeful  and  encouraging  words  ;  they  were,  '  The 
Lord  is  my  Shepherd  j  I  shall  not  want.  He  maketh 
me  to  lie  down  in  green  pastures  :  He  leadeth  me 
beside  the  still  waters.'  In  consequence  of  this 
oracular  message,  or  from  some  other  cause  more 
natural,  she  had  become  quite  cheerful  and  com- 
posed." 

May  not  that  "  oracular  message  "  have  been  the 

237 


The  Discrowned  Empress 

divine  Father's  word  of  comfort  to  His  child  in  her 
hour  of  humiliation  and  anguish  ?  There  is  no 
portrait  of  the  Empress  Eugenie,  crowned  and 
throned,  which  appeals  to  the  heart  as  does  that 
mental  picture  which  shows  her  sitting  with  the 
Bible  in  her  hand  in  the  little  Ryde  hotel. 

At  Hastings  the  Empress  and  her  son  were  re- 
united, and  on  Sunday,  25  September,  three  weeks 
exactly  from  the  fatal  Fourth  of  September,  they 
entered  on  their  life  at  Chislehurst. 


238 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE    FIRST   YEARS   IN    ENGLAND 

Bismarck  and  the  Empress — Regnier,  the  spy  of  Metz — Negotia- 
tions through  General  Boyer — Action  of  the  Empress — Death  of 
Prosper  Merimee — Return  of  Napoleon  from  Wilhelmshohe — At 
Buckingham  Palace — Last  days  of  the  Emperor — His  will — 
Property  of  the  Imperial  family. 

NO  emissaries  of  the  Republic  followed  the  Em- 
press in  her  flight  ;  but  the  war  and  the 
political  crisis  disturbed  the  peace  of  her  early 
months  in  England.  Europe  could  not  realize  at 
first  that  the  Second  Empire  was  fallen  for  ever. 
The  eyes  of  diplomatists  were  turned  anxiously  to- 
wards the  prisoner  of  Wilhelmshohe  and  his  exiled 
consort.  Bismarck  himself,  in  the  first  fortnight 
after  Sedan,  wished  to  treat  directly  with  Napoleon. 
In  the  discussions  which  followed  the  capitulation, 
the  Emperor  had  referred  his  conquerors  to  the 
Government  of  the  Regent,  and  even  after  the 
Regency  had  disappeared  Bismarck  tried  to  renew 
relations  with  the  Empress.  He  thought  that  by 
holding  out  hopes  of  a  Restoration  he  might  secure 
her  assent  to  severe  conditions  of  peace.  On  n  Sep- 
tember a  note  was  published  in  the  Independant 
Remois,  announcing  that  Germany  recognized  no 
other  authority  in  France  than  that  of  Napoleon  III, 
and  that  the  Imperial  Government  alone  possessed 
authority   to   negotiate  on   an   international   basis. 

239 


The  First  Years  in  England 

The  Germans  were  prepared  to  communicate  directly 
either  with  the  Emperor  in  person  or  with  the  Regent, 
who  held  her  power  from  him,  or  with  Marshal  Ba- 
zaine,  whom  he  had  appointed  to  the  leadership  of 
the  Army  of  Metz. 

Napoleon  and  Eugenie  refused  to  hear  of  terms 
which  would  involve  a  cession  of  territory.  On  13 
September  the  Empress  wrote  to  the  Czar  that  the 
war  must  go  on  if  peace  could  be  concluded  only  by 
the  loss  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  "  Fate  has  been 
hard  to  us,"  she  wrote.  "  The  Emperor  is  a  prisoner 
and  calumniated.  Another  Government  has  taken 
up  the  task  which  we  thought  it  our  duty  to  fulfil.  I 
entreat  your  Majesty  to  use  your  influence  so  that 
an  honourable  and  lasting  peace  may  be  concluded 
when  the  moment  shall  arrive.  May  France,  what- 
ever its  government,  always  be  able  to  count  upon 
the  same  consideration  which  your  Majesty  has 
shown  to  ours  during  these  hard  trials." 

It  was  after  the  failure  of  his  preliminary  efforts 
with  Napoleon  and  Eugenie  that  Bismarck  resolved 
to  put  himself  in  touch  with  Jules  Favre  and  Bazaine. 

We  come  now  to  the  singular  story  of  Regnier, 
the  spy  of  Metz,  and  his  relations  with  the  Empress 
Eugenie.  Before  the  war  broke  out  Regnier  had 
never  held  any  diplomatic  appointment.  In  youth 
he  had  led  an  adventurous,  unsettled  life,  studying 
law  and  medicine  half-heartedly,  visiting  Algeria  as 
an  assistant  to  the  army  doctors,  and  afterwards 
mending  his  fortunes  by  marrying  an  English  wife. 
He  divided  his  time  between  France  and  England, 
and  was  possessed  of  some  means.  M.  Sorel,  in  his 
Diplomatic  History  of  the   War,  says  of   Regnier: 

240 


The  Spy  of  Metz 

"  All  his  acts  were  equivocal ;  his  person  is  still 
surrounded  with  mystery." 

On  12  September  this  man  wrote  to  the  Empress, 
offering  to  act  as  an  intermediary  between  her  and 
the  Prussian  headquarters.  Eugenie,  who  was  then 
at  Hastings,  thought  it  a  suspicious  circumstance 
that  at  the  moment  when  Bismarck  was  declaring 
that  he  would  negotiate  only  through  the  Imperial 
family,  this  unknown  person  should  offer  himself  as 
a  messenger.  She  replied  vaguely  that  she  could  do 
nothing,  and  that  the  interest  of  France  was  more 
important  than  the  interest  of  the  dynasty.  On 
14  September  Regnier  sent  a  second  letter,  and  on 
the  15th,  the  very  day  on  which  Bismarck  informed 
Jules  Favre  that  he  would  treat  with  any  one  sent 
by  the  French  Government,  he  wrote  a  third  and 
more  urgent  appeal,  declaring  his  conviction  that  he 
could  secure  better  conditions  of  peace  than  would 
be  granted  to  the  Republican  party.  On  the  evening 
of  the  15th  Regnier  called  on  the  Empress.  He 
must  have  almost  forced  his  way  into  her  presence, 
and  the  little  group  of  friends  who  surrounded  her 
treated  him  with  such  evident  suspicion  that  he 
angrily  declared  he  would  carry  his  proposals  to 
Wilhelmshohe,  as  he  knew  the  Emperor  would  under- 
stand his  motives.  Next  day  he  watched  for  an 
opportunity  to  approach  the  Prince  Imperial  when 
the  boy  was  walking  with  his  tutor,  M.  Filon.  Hold- 
ing out  some  photographs,  he  remarked  that  he  was 
about  to  leave  for  Wilhelmshohe,  and  suggested  that 
the  Prince  might  write  his  name  or  put  a  short  greet- 
ing to  his  father  on  one  of  them.  M.  Filon  allowed 
his  pupil  to  write  on  the  back  of  a  photograph,  "  My 

K  24I 


The   First  Years  in  England 

dear  Papa,  I  send  you  some  views  of  Hastings.  I 
hope  they  will  please  you." 

The  Empress,  it  is  said,  blamed  M.  Filon  severely, 
and  sent  a  message  warning  the  Emperor  that  Reg- 
nier  had  no  authority  from  her  to  present  himself  at 
Wilhelmshohe. 

Armed  with  the  Prince  Imperial's  signature, 
Regnier  next  proceeded  to  Ferrieres.  Bismarck  con- 
sented to  see  him,  but  the  sight  of  the  photographs, 
in  the  absence  of  any  letter  of  introduction  from  the 
Empress,  must  have  convinced  the  Chancellor  that 
he  was  dealing  with  an  irresponsible  adventurer.  In 
a  letter  to  Bernstorff,  Bismarck  described  Regnier 
asa  "  farceur."  However,  he  decided  to  make  use 
of  the  man  in  order  to  discover  the  state  of  affairs  in 
Metz,  and  to  read  the  projects  of  Bazaine.  Regnier 
was  charged  with  a  commission  from  Bismarck  to 
propose,  as  from  the  Imperial  family,  that  the  Mar- 
shal should  surrender  the  fortress,  call  together  the 
Chambers,  which  had  been  dissolved  on  4  September, 
and  invite  them  to  treat  with  the  Germans.  Jules 
Favre,  who  was  at  Ferrieres,  little  imagined  that 
before  and  after  his  interview  with  the  Iron  Chan- 
cellor this  cunning  spy  was  endeavouring  to  thwart 
his  policy.  Before  leaving  the  town  Regnier  wrote 
again  to  Bismarck,  proposing  that  either  General 
Bourbaki  or  Marshal  Canrobert  should  go  to  see  the 
Empress. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  23  September  Regnier 
reached  the  headquarters  of  Prince  Frederick  Charles 
at  Corny,  and  was  permitted,  on  showing  the  pass- 
port from  Bismarck,  to  proceed  to  Metz.  There  he 
was  led  into  the  presence  of  Bazaine.     He  declared 

242 


Regnier  and  Bismarck 

that  he  had  come  as  a  messenger  from  the  Empress, 
and  was  empowered  to  treat  in  her  name.  He 
allowed  the  Marshal  to  believe  that  the  Empress  was 
willing  that  the  fortress  should  be  surrendered,  and 
that  the  Army  of  Metz  should  be  used  in  pacifying 
the  country  and  in  restoring  the  Imperial  rule. 
Bazaine  refused  to  consider  the  question  of  sur- 
render, though  Regnier  learned  while  in  Metz  that 
there  were  hardly  any  horses  left  to  draw  the  guns, 
and  that  by  25  October  the  garrison  would  be  com- 
pletely starved  out.  Regnier  had  left  Metz  when  he 
received  a  telegram  from  Bismarck  consenting  to  his 
proposal  that  Canrobert  or  Bourbaki  should  go  to 
England  to  treat  with  the  Empress.  He  returned  to 
the  Marshal's  headquarters  and  entreated  him,  in 
view  of  the  sufferings  of  his  brave  army,  not  to  lose 
the  chance  of  making  peace.  Bazaine  was  much 
disposed  to  treat,  though  he  could  not  as  yet  con- 
template the  prospect  of  an  abject  surrender.  He 
summoned  Canrobert  and  Bourbaki,  and  asked  if 
either  would  undertake  the  commission.  Canrobert 
declined,  as  he  was  suffering  from  a  wound  ;  but 
Bourbaki,  whose  sister,  Madame  Lebreton,  was  with 
the  Empress  in  England,  accepted  the  plausible  story 
of  the  spy,  and  agreed  to  set  out  with  him. 

On  25  September,  when  Bourbaki  had  left  Metz 
disguised  as  a  physician,  his  suspicions  were  aroused 
by  the  friendly  relations  he  observed  between  Reg- 
nier and  the  Prussian  officers.  We  must  remember 
that  the  army  in  Metz  knew  little  of  the  events  which 
had  happened  in  France  after  Sedan,  and  Bourbaki 
no  doubt  believed  that  the  Empress  still  possessed 
sufficient  power,  in  virtue  of  her  Regency,  to  nego- 

*4J 


The  First  Years  in  England 

tiate  the  conditions  of  peace.  On  reaching  Chisle- 
hurst  he  was  painfully  undeceived.  "  What !  has 
Metz  fallen  ?  "  cried  the  Empress  as  she  came  to 
meet  him.  On  that  first  evening,  as  he  told  of  the 
army's  sufferings  and  of  the  piteous  state  of  the 
villages  of  Lorraine,  "  she  broke  out,"  says  Bourbaki, 
"  into  such  a  paroxysm  of  grief  that  it  was  impossible 
for  me  to  continue  the  narrative."  Next  morning 
the  Empress  informed  him  that  she  could  do  nothing. 
Action  on  her  part  would  only  embarrass  the  Govern- 
ment of  National  Defence.  All  that  was  possible 
Eugenie  did.  She  wrote  on  28  September  an  urgent 
letter  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  begging  the  Powers 
to  intervene.  "  The  Emperor,  being  a  prisoner,  can 
at  this  moment  do  nothing  for  the  country.  But  I, 
having  been  obliged  to  leave  France  against  my  own 
will,  cannot  remain  silent  in  the  midst  of  so  much 
sorrow  and  ruin.  I  believe,  in  addressing  myself  to 
your  Majesty,  you  will  understand  that  my  only  care 
is  for  France,  and  that  for  it  alone  my  sorely  tried 
heart  offers  its  prayers."  Most  earnestly  she  begged 
Francis  Joseph  to  use  his  influence  to  protect  the 
defeated  country  against  humiliating  demands,  and 
to  obtain  a  peace  by  which  the  integrity  of  the  terri- 
tory would  be  respected. 

Bourbaki  did  not  remain  long  at  Chislehurst.  He 
was  bitterly  chagrined  at  the  false  position  into 
which  he  had  been  led,  and  as  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  return  to  Metz  he  offered  his  sword  to  the 
Government  of  National  Defence,  and  was  appointed 
to  a  military  command.  R6gnier's  visit  to  Bismarck 
on  his  return  from  Metz  must  have  been  less  pleasant 
than  the  original  interview,  after  which  he  was  lodged 

244 


Bourbaki  at  Chislehurst 

in  Count  Hatzfeldt's  room  and  served  with  claret  and 
champagne.  "  Find  some  one  with  whom  we  can 
treat/'  Bismarck  had  said  to  him,  "  and  you  will 
render  a  great  service  to  your  country."  On  return- 
ing Regnier  had  nothing  to  show  but  a  photograph 
of  Bazaine  and  a  letter  from  the  General  to  his  wife. 
"  I  have  been  a  diplomatist  for  more  than  twelve 
years,"  said  Bismarck,  "  and  these  things  are  not 
enough  for  me.  I  regret  very  much  that  I  must 
break  off  the  negotiations  until  you  have  ampler 
powers.  Would  you  object  to  my  wiring  Bazaine 
'  Does  Marshal  Bazaine  authorize  M.  Regnier  to  treat 
with  regard  to  the  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Metz  ?  '  " 
Bazaine  replied,  "  I  cannot  answer  this  question  in 
the  affirmative.  I  told  M.  Regnier  that  I  could  not 
negotiate  on  the  basis  of  the  capitulation  of  Metz." 
From  this  time  Regnier  drops  out  of  history.  On 
17  September,  1874,  he  was  condemned  to  death,  in 
his  absence,  by  the  Council  of  War,  as  a  spy.  Eugenie 
acted  with  good  sense  and  true  patriotism  in  repelling 
his  proposals. 

Some  of  the  English  papers  declared  mistakenly 
at  this  time  that  Bourbaki  had  been  welcomed  by 
the  Empress  as  an  intermediary  from  Bazaine,  and 
that  she  asked  him  to  take  the  Prince  Imperial  back 
to  Metz,  with  instructions  that  on  the  surrender  of 
the  fortress  peace  should  be  concluded  with  Germany. 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  to  be  sacrificed,  the  Prince 
Imperial  would  be  proclaimed  as  Napoleon  IV,  his 
father  abdicating  for  his  sake  and  his  mother  acting 
as  Regent.  Not  until  the  war  was  over  were  the 
real  facts  understood. 

Important  facts  concerning  the  negotiations  be- 

24s 


The  First  Years  in  England 

tween  the  German  authorities  and  the  Empress  are 
disclosed  in  the  Bernstorff  papers.  Count  Berns- 
torff  was  German  Ambassador  in  London  during  the 
Franco-German  War.  His  son,  Count  Andreas 
Bernstorff,  says  that  the  victors,  in  the  autumn 
which  followed  Sedan,  looked  in  vain  for  a  French 
Government  which  would  sign  the  conditions  of 
peace  which  Bismarck  had  determined  to  impose. 
"  A  new  Regent  or  the  President  of  a  Republic  would 
scarcely  have  dared  to  take  upon  himself  the  odium 
of  such  negotiations.  The  Bonapartists  wished  to 
save  the  Empire.  Bazaine's  army  was  still  shut  up 
in  Metz.  This  army,  if  released  at  the  right  moment, 
might  maintain  order  after  the  conclusion  of  the 
peace  with  Germany,  and  protect  the  dynasty.  As 
the  Emperor  was  a  prisoner  at  Wilhelmshohe,  the 
Empress  would  undertake  the  Regency.  Many 
Bonapartists  at  that  time  called  upon  us  at  the  Em- 
bassy, in  order  to  see  whether,  through  her  inter- 
vention, Germany  would  be  willing  to  conclude 
peace  and  release  Bazaine's  army.  With  this  object 
in  view  my  father  had  on  one  occasion  an  interview 
with  the  Empress  Eugenie  in  London." 

On  10  October  General  Boyer  had  been  sent  from 
Metz  to  Versailles  as  an  emissary  from  Bazaine. 
Bismarck  said  he  would  not  agree  to  Bazaine's  pro- 
posals unless  the  latter  would  declare  in  the  name  of 
the  Army  of  Metz  that  the  army  would  consider  it- 
self, after  as  before  its  release,  as  pledged  to  the 
Empire  and  determined  to  acknowledge  the  Empress 
Eugenie  as  Regent.  He  desired  also  that  the  Em- 
press should  issue  a  manifesto  to  the  French  people. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  to  be  published  a  docu- 

246 


Count  Bernstorff  and  the  Empress 

ment  signed  by  a  plenipotentiary  empowered  by  the 
Regent,  and  embodying  the  conditions  of  peace 
already  agreed  upon  between  her  and  the  German 
Government.  These  conditions  would  include  the 
acceptance  of  a  cession  of  territory.  On  the  after- 
noon of  17  October  Boyer  was  back  in  Metz.  The 
generals  declared  themselves  ready  to  accept  Bis- 
marck's first  condition,  but  resolved  that  Bazaine 
must  sign  no  document  which  consented  to  the  giving 
up  of  territory.  Boyer  must  return  at  once  to  Ver- 
sailles, proceeding  afterwards  to  England,  in  order 
to  learn  the  decision  of  the  Empress.  At  Versailles, 
however,  they  would  not  proceed  further  in  the 
business  until  Boyer  had  been  in  London.  He 
therefore  set  off  at  once  for  the  English  capital. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Bernstorff  had  his  meeting 
with  the  Empress.  On  23  October  Eugenie  sent  the 
Ambassador  the  following  note  :  "  Time  is  so  pre- 
cious and  the  intermediaries  are  causing  us  to  lose  so 
much  that  I  should  like  to  speak  with  you.  Lady 
Cowley  has  offered  me  her  London  house,  No.  20 
Albemarle  Street.  I  am  going  there  to-day.  If  you 
can  meet  me  there  no  one  will  see  you.  I  need  not 
add  that  I  request  you  will  observe  the  strictest 
secrecy  about  my  concerns."  The  note  was  signed 
'  Comtesse  de  Pierrefonds."  The  Ambassador 
drove  to  Lady  Cowley's  house  in  a  cab.  His  son 
tells  us  that  the  negotiations  failed  because  the  Bona- 
partists  were  not  willing  to  make  the  necessary  sacri- 
fice of  territory — a  sacrifice  to  which  France  agreed 
only  after  a  further  prolongation  of  the  war.  "  I  re- 
member one  point  of  curious  interest — my  father 
told  me  that  the  Empress  was  obviously  rouged. 

247 


The   First  Years  in  England 

She  dabbed  the  tears  out  of  her  eyes  during  the  inter- 
view, after  the  custom  of  ladies  who  do  not  wish  the 
salt  drops  to  injure  the  artificial  colouring  of  their 
cheeks." 

The  Empress  played  an  honourable  part  in  all  her 
relations  with  the  Germans.  If  a  generous  peace 
could  have  been  obtained,  she  was  ready  to  relin- 
quish the  rights  of  the  Imperial  family,  and  agree  to 
their  exile  from  France  for  an  indefinite  period. 
"  The  question  of  what  form  the  government  shall 
take  falls  into  the  background  before  the  highest  and 
most  important  question  of  all — the  independence  of 
the  fatherland." 

The  arrival  of  General  Boyer  cheered  the  Empress, 
and  she  listened  attentively  to  Bismarck's  proposals. 
But  she  refused  resolutely  to  consent  to  any  sur- 
render of  territory.  She  fancied  that  if  time  could 
be  gained  all  might  yet  be  saved,  and  pleaded  for  a 
preliminary  assurance  that  Bazaine  should  be  allowed 
to  revictual  his  army.  Writing  to  Bismarck,  the 
Empress  declared  that  she  proposed  to  confer  on 
Bazaine  full  authority  to  treat  for  peace  and  to 
appoint  him  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Empire. 
"  If  you  accept,  it  is  urgent  that  a  copy  of  this 
despatch  should  be  at  once  forwarded  to  the  Marshal, 
and  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  provide  fresh  pro- 
visions for  his  troops."  Bismarck  would  yield 
nothing  while  the  great  question  remained  unsettled. 
But  he  was  clever  enough  to  play  off  the  Bonapar- 
tists  against  the  Republicans  through  the  whole 
course  of  the  negotiations.  Even  as  late  as  23 
January,  1871,  he  told  Favre  that  he  was  sure  he 
could  re-establish  the  Empire.     "  We  have  10,000 

243 


Death  of  Merimee 

prisoners,  who  wish  to  recall  the  Emperor  ;  we  shall 
enter  Paris,  and  you  may  be  sure  the  people  will  be 
very  glad  to  make  peace  with  him." 

In  the  sad  month  of  September,  1870,  the  Empress 
lost  her  old  friend  Prosper  Merimee,  who  died  at 
Cannes  on  the  23rd,  faithfully  nursed  to  the  last  by 
his  friends  Miss  Lagden  and  Mrs.  Ewers.  By  his 
will  he  left  directions  that  his  funeral  should  take 
place  with  Lutheran  rites.  This  was  probably  a 
concession  made  to  please  the  English  ladies,  for 
Merimee  never  accepted  any  form  of  Christianity. 
To  Madame  de  la  Rochejaquelein,  an  earnest  Catholic 
lady  who  sought  his  conversion,  he  wrote  :  "I  am 
unlucky  enough  to  be  a  sceptic,  but  it  is  not  my  fault. 
I  have  tried  to  believe,  but  I  have  no  faith.  .  .  . 
This  is  not  the  result  of  my  education  ;  it  is  an 
organic  defect.  .  .  .  There  is  much  that  pleases  me  in 
the  Christian  religion,  and  especially  in  Catholicism. 
...  I  am  very  sensible  of  the  pity  you  feel  for  me, 
and  I  thank  you  from  my  heart  for  the  interest  you 
take  in  my  poor  soul.  To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  don't 
believe  in  my  conversion,  but  in  the  Crimea  there  are 
sisters  of  mercy  who  care  for  the  wounded  whom  the 
doctors  have  given  over,  and  their  care  makes  death 
sweet." 

Referring  to  Merimee's  directions  for  his  funeral, 
M.  Filon  says  :  "  We  may  be  permitted  to  conjecture 
that  after  having  said  '  No '  for  more  than  sixty 
years,  his  dying  lips  murmured  '  Perhaps.'  " 

The  last  days  of  the  great  writer  had  been  filled 
with  thoughts  of  the  exiled  lady  whom  he  had  loved 
from  her  childhood.  He  wrote  to  Panizzi,  begging 
him  to  place  himself  at  Eugenie's  disposal.     He  saw 

j49 


The  First  Years  in  England 

her  head  "  encircled  with  an  aureole,"  and  believed 
the  day  would  come  when  men  yet  unborn  would 
render  her  their  heart's  homage  and  worship  her 
memory. 

The  Emperor  returned  to  his  family  on  20  March, 
1 87 1.  The  diplomatist  Charles  Gavard  dwells  with 
surprise  in  his  diary  on  the  popularity  of  the  fallen 
monarch,  as  shown  by  his  reception  in  England. 
Crowds  were  waiting  at  Dover  to  greet  him,  and  as 
the  steamer  came  in  there  was  a  rush  for  the  quay. 
General  Fleury  and  Prince  Achille  Murat  travelled 
with  Napoleon.  The  Empress  and  the  Prince  Im- 
perial had  come  by  special  train  from  Chislehurst. 
The  Mayor  of  Dover,  Mr.  Henry  Payn,  reminded 
the  Emperor,  perhaps  a  little  unfortunately,  that  he 
had  greeted  him  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  in  1855. 
The  Empress  kissed  her  husband  tenderly  and  clung 
with  both  hands  to  his  arm.  She  looked  half- 
frightened,  half-pleased  as  she  heard  the  shouts  of 
"  Vive  l'Empereur  !  "  At  Chislehurst  the  excite- 
ment was  such  that  the  police  were  called  in  to  pro- 
tect the  railings  of  Camden  Place.  Queen  Victoria's 
approval  of  the  demonstration  was  confirmed  by  the 
early  visit  she  paid  to  her  guest  of  1855. 

On  15  August,  Napoleon's  birthday,  many  friends 
from  France  were  received  at  Chislehurst,  and  the 
house  was  filled  with  flowers. 

In  September  the  Empress  visited  her  mother  in 
Spain.  Her  husband  and  son  saw  her  away  from 
Southampton,  and  then  went  for  the  autumn  weeks 
to  Torquay.  The  Emperor,  in  a  letter  to  his  wife, 
remarked  on  the  expensiveness  of  living  at  the  hotel, 
but  at  the  same  time  expressed  satisfaction  that  they 

250 


Life  at  Chislehurst 

had  never,  in  their  days  of  prosperity,  dreamt  of 
putting  money  safely  by  in  foreign  countries.  There 
was  a  want  of  ready  money  at  this  moment  in  the 
household,  for  the  Empress  found  it  necessary  to  sell 
some  of  her  Spanish  property.  "  I  am  very  glad," 
her  husband  wrote,  "  to  hear  about  your  projects  of 
sale.  I  understand  all  that  it  must  cost  you  and 
your  mother  also  to  part  with  property  which  has 
so  long  been  in  your  family.  But  the  sacrifice  is 
necessary  to  secure  the  future  of  our  dear  son." 

The  exiles  to  whom  England  had  given  a  home 
came  to  London  on  27  February,  1872,  for  the 
national  thanksgiving  on  the  recovery  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales.  They  intended  to  witness  the  procession 
from  the  Army  and  Navy  Club,  but  afterwards  re- 
ceived an  invitation  to  see  it  from  Buckingham 
Palace.  Driving  through  the  West  End  on  their 
way  to  the  Palace,  they  were  greeted  with  cheers, 
to  which  the  Empress  responded  smilingly.  On 
their  arrival  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh  conducted  them 
to  one  of  the  State  apartments  over  the  portico,  and 
from  the  balcony  they  watched  the  procession  set 
out.  As  the  carriage  conveying  the  Queen  and  the 
Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  came  out  of  the  court- 
yard the  Emperor  took  off  his  hat,  and  he  and  the 
Empress  bowed  several  times  to  their  royal  hosts. 

'  Fidus  "  tells  us  in  his  Journal  that  on  the  Em- 
press's fete  day  in  1872  flowers  arrived  from  every 
part  of  France.  There  were  more  bouquets  than  she 
had  been  accustomed  to  receive  at  the  Tuileries. 
The  Empress  was  radiant  with  joy  ;  she  superin- 
tended the  unpacking  of  the  boxes  and  helped  to 
arrange   the   flowers.     All   the   French  papers  and 

251 


The  First  Years  in  England 

most  of  the  chief  English  journals  were  taken  in  at 
Chislehurst.  The  Empress,  from  the  beginning  of 
her  reign,  had  been  a  careful  student  of  the  press. 
Perhaps  there  was  even  a  too  close  watching  of  the 
currents  of  opinion.  It  is  said  that  after  the  death 
of  the  Prince  Imperial  bundles  of  newspapers  attack- 
ing the  Empire  were  discovered  in  his  rooms,  and 
there  is  reason  to  fear  that  the  poor  boy  had  taken 
seriously  some  of  the  insulting  references  to  the 
affair  of  Saarbruck. 

The  Imperial  family  lived  very  quietly  at  Camden 
Place.  The  Emperor  met  his  little  Court  each  day 
at  luncheon,  and  afterwards  he  would  sit  in  the 
morning-room  by  the  wood  fire,  chatting  with  his 
wife  and  son  on  the  events  of  the  past.  He  could 
rarely  be  persuaded  to  discuss  the  politics  of  the 
hour,  and  when  the  presence  of  a  statesman  such  as 
M.  Rouher  forced  the  conversation  into  this  channel, 
the  Emperor  begged  his  party  to  practise  moderation 
and  charity.  From  Wilhelmshohe,  when  his  consort 
had  telegraphed  proposing  to  publish  some  corre- 
spondence that  had  passed  between  him  and  the 
Guizott,  he  had  replied  :  "I  forbid  you  to  publish 
a  word  of  it.  M.  Guizot  is  an  illustrious  Frenchman. 
I  have  helped  him.  I  do  not  confer  favours  in  order 
that  they  may  become  arms  against  my  enemies. 
Not  a  word." 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  amid  the  long  leisure  of 
Chislehurst  the  Emperor  never  revised  his  will.  The 
explanation  doubtless  is  that  he  hoped  until  the  last 
for  a  restoration  to  his  throne.  The  Journal  of 
"  Fidus"  reveals  the  optimism  of  the  adherents  of 
the  Empire, 

252 


Last  Illness  of  Napoleon 

Napoleon  was  surrounded  in  exile  by  a  few  faithful 
friends,  and  found  his  chief  happiness  in  watching  the 
progress  of  the  Prince  Imperial,  who,  in  October,  1871, 
entered  the  Military  Academy  at  Woolwich.  In  1872, 
the  Emperor's  health,  long  undermined  by  disease, 
began  to  fail  rapidly,  and  in  October  Sir  James  Paget 
was  called  into  consultation  with  Sir  William  Gull, 
Baron  Corvisart,  and  Dr.  Conneau.  Sir  James  did  not 
advise  an  operation,  but  thought  that  with  proper 
care  and  diet  the  patient  might  live  for  many  years. 

Dr.  Evans,  in  his  memoirs,  denies  that  political 
motives  influenced  the  Emperor  in  his  consent  to 
submit  to  the  operation  which  the  surgeons  recom- 
mended after  their  examination  of  2  January,  1873. 
The  real  facts  of  the  case  are  well  known  from  other 
sources.  Count  von  Beust,  the  Austrian  minister, 
who  was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  exiled 
family,  says  that  Napoleon  only  determined  on 
undergoing  the  operation  because  he  would  probably 
soon  have  to  show  himself  on  horseback.  It  is 
certain,  he  remarks,  that  a  second  "return  from 
Elba  "  was  in  preparation,  and  was  intended  to  take 
place  on  20  March. 

M.  Hanotaux  sums  up  the  situation  in  La 
France  Contemporaine.  For  months,  he  says,  the 
plot  had  been  ripening.  Leading  politicians,  generals, 
prefects,  Church  dignitaries,  were  in  the  Emperor's 
confidence.  M.  Rouher  had  several  times  crossed 
the  Channel,  in  order  to  find  out  if  the  invalid 
were  sufficiently  recovered  to  mount  on  horse- 
back. In  November,  1872,  Napoleon  had  taken  a 
ride  in  the  lanes  of  Chislehurst,  and  had  also  at- 
tempted a  short  journey  by  rail.     So  great  was  the 


'3J 


The  First  Years  in  England 

exhaustion  which  followed  that  he  and  his  circle 
recognized  that  no  political  attempt  could  be  made 
until  he  had  undergone  an  operation.  It  was  in- 
tended that  after  the  operation  he  should  go  to 
Cowes  to  recruit,  and  that  from  this  port  he  should 
cross  to  Ostend,  proceeding  afterwards  to  Cologne, 
Bale,  and  Nyon.  From  Nyon  he  and  Prince  Jerome 
Napoleon  were  to  go  to  Annecy  and  Lyon.  The  com- 
mandant at  Lyon  was  General  Bourbaki,  a  firm  sup- 
porter of  the  Imperial  cause.  Troops,  it  was  hoped, 
would  rally  round  the  restored  Emperor,  and  at 
their  head  he  would  ride  to  Paris.  A  new  Cabinet 
had  been  planned,  with  Count  de  Keratry  as  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  and  Marshal  MacMahon  as  Minister  of 
War.  General  Fleury  was  to  be  Military  Governor 
of  Paris.  Rumours  were  current  that  Bismarck 
favoured  the  restoration.  In  December,  1872,  Napo- 
leon was  already  said  to  be  in  Paris. 

The  unfortunate  Emperor  was  all  the  while  grow- 
ing worse.  The  local  malady  made  progress,  his 
general  health  was  seriously  affected,  and  he  could 
take  no  exercise.  On  24  December  Sir  Henry 
Thompson  was  summoned  to  Chislehurst.  The 
operation  of  lithotrity  was  performed  on  2  January, 
and  again  on  6  January  ;  a  third  operation  was  to 
have  taken  place  on  the  9th,  but  on  the  morning  of 
that  day  symptoms  of  heart  failure  became  apparent, 
and  the  Emperor  passed  away  without  having  been 
able  to  recognize  his  wife.  His  last  words,  mur- 
mured to  his  oldest  and  dearest  friend,  "  Conneau, 
were  you  at  Sedan  ?  "  showed  that  as  the  shadows 
gathered  his  mind  was  lingering  on  that  great  cata- 
strophe.  There  was  little  comfort  for  the  Empress  in 

254 


The  Emperor's  Will 

her  bereavement,  little  comfort  for  the  young  boy 
whom  Count  Clary  brought  hurriedly  from  Woolwich 
to  stand  by  his  father's  death-bed. 

For  loyal  Bonapartists,  and  especially  for  old  and 
loving  friends  like  Dr.  Conneau,  there  must  have  been 
some  alleviation  in  the  thought  that  the  Empress 
would  not  be  obliged  to  wear  out  her  old  age  on  a 
foreign  shore,  eating  the  bitter  bread  of  banishment. 
"For  an  exiled  sovereign,"  says  Mr.  Froude,  "there 
is  but  one  sure  prison,"  and  may  we  not  add,  but 
one  place  of  secure  repose  ?  Dr.  Conneau,  I  think, 
must  have  taken  to  himself  that  comfort  with  which 
the  Merchant  of  Venice,  the  heroic,  tender-hearted 
Antonio,  seeks  in  the  crisis  of  the  trial  to  console  his 
sorrowing  friend  : — 

Herein  Fortune  shows  herself  more  kind 

Than  is  her  custom ;  it  is  still  her  use 

To  let  the  wretched  man  outlive  his  wealth, 

To  view  with  hollow  eye  and  wrinkled  brow 

An  age  of  penury ;  from  which  lingering  penance 

Of  such  misery  doth  she  cut  me  off. 

Napoleon  could  not,  even  in  the  natural  course  of 
events,  have  looked  forward,  like  the  royal  mer- 
chant, through  a  long  vista  of  happy  years.  Old 
age  in  England,  with  his  constitution  hopelessly 
broken  and  his  mind  clouded  with  memories  of 
shame,  would  have  been  to  him  indeed  "  a  lingering 
penance."  Better  the  rest  above  the  marble  slab  in 
the  church  at  Chislehurst  than  years  of  fruitless  in- 
trigue and  the  haunting  of  palace  doors. 

Napoleon's  will  is  dated  24  April,  1865.  It  con- 
tains interesting  references  to  the  Empress. 

The  Empress  Eugenie  possesses  all  the  qualities 

255 


The   First  Years  in  England 

requisite  for  conducting  the  Regency  well,  and  my 
son  displays  a  disposition  and  judgment  which  will 
render  him  worthy  of  his  high  destinies." 

"  I  leave  to  the  Empress  Eugenie  all  my  private 
property.  It  is  my  desire  that  on  the  majority  of 
my  son  she  shall  inhabit  the  Ely  see  and  Biarritz.  I 
trust  that  my  memory  will  be  dear  to  her,  and  that 
after  my  death  she  will  forget  the  griefs  I  may  have 
caused  her." 

The  will  was  published  along  with  a  letter  from  the 
solicitors  of  the  Empress,  in  which  it  was  stated  that 
the  estate  had  been  sworn  under  £120,000.  "  But  it 
is  right  to  state  that  this  sum  is  subject  to  claims 
which  will  reduce  the  amount  actually  received  by 
the  administrators  to  about  one-half  of  the  sum 
named." 

The  financial  affairs  of  the  Imperial  family  were 
the  subject  of  much  litigation  after  the  Emperor's 
death.  At  the  end  of  June,  1872,  it  was  announced 
that  the  Empress  had  sold  her  jewels  for  1,250,000 
francs  (£50,000).  One  of  her  most  magnificent  neck- 
laces was  bought  for  the  Rajah  of  Patiala,  and  is 
worn  by  his  successor  on  state  occasions.  The  pearl 
collar  which  Eugenie  wore  on  her  wedding  day  was 
also  sold. 

M.  Jules  Richard  estimated  as  follows  the  property 
of  the  Empress  after  the  death  of  her  husband. 

(1)  Three  houses  in  the  Rue  de  TElys^e  valued  at 
2,600,000  francs,  on  which  two  millions  had  been 
lent  by  the  Credit  foncier. 

(2)  Two  houses  in  the  Rue  d'Albe  valued  at 
900,000  francs,  on  which  800,000  had  been  lent  by 
the  Credit  foncier. 

2^6 


THE     EMPRESS     EUGENIE     AS     A     WIDOW. 

London. 


Property  of  the  Empress 

(3)  The  estate  of  La  Jonchere,  a  pleasure-home, 
which  brought  in  no  revenue.  Valued  at  500,000 
francs. 

(4)  The  Solferino  property  (Landes),  valued  at 
1,500,000  francs,  on  which  a  million  had  been  lent 
by  the  Credit  fonder. 

(5)  The  estate  of  Arnost  (Basses  Pyrenees), 
120,000  francs. 

(6)  The  Biarritz  property — one  million  francs. 

(7)  The  Imperial  palace  at  Marseilles  cost  1,658,000 
francs.  As  it  was  not  completed,  its  sale  did  not 
suffice  to  pay  the  sums  borrowed  of  the  Credit 
foncier. 

(8)  The  house  in  the  Rue  de  Courcelles  sold  for 
1,300,000  francs,  which  were  spent  in  paying  the 
debts  of  the  Civil  List. 

(9)  The  Chalet  de  Vichy.  The  money  from  its 
sale  was  spent  in  the  same  way. 

(10)  The  claims  upon  the  State  which  were  never 
reimbursed. 

(n)  £75,000  in  rentes. 

The  ex-Empress  claimed  the  Chinese  Museum  at 
Fontainebleau  and  the  collection  of  arms  at  Pierre- 
fonds,  which  might  fairly  be  regarded  as  her  personal 
property.  It  was  not  till  February,  1879,  that  an 
arrangement  was  reached  by  which  these  collections 
remained  in  possession  of  the  State,  while  the  State 
remitted  to  the  heirs  of  the  Emperor  part  of  the 
Civil  List  income  which  he  had  received  in  advance, 
and  which  the  Republic  now  claimed. 

A  touching  picture  of  the  Empress  Eugenie  in 
exile  is  given  us  by  Count  von  Beust,  who,  like 
Bismarck,    warmly    admired    her.     The    Austrian 

s  257 


The  First  Years  in  England 

minister,  who  visited  Chislehurst  on  several  occa- 
sions, says  :  "  Those  who,  like  myself,  have  had 
the  opportunity  of  seeing  how  deadly  was  the 
ennui  of  Chislehurst  could  only  praise  the  forti- 
tude with  which  it  was  borne  by  one  who  has 
been  repeatedly  accused  of  frivolity  and  love  of 
pleasure,  and  who  was  still  remarkably  beautiful. 
She  never  gave  up  her  mourning,  and  although 
the  members  of  the  highest  aristocracy  would  have 
considered  it  an  honour  to  entertain  her  at  their 
country  houses,  she  never  accepted  any  invitations 
but  those  of  the  Queen  to  Windsor.  The  future  of 
her  son  was  her  constant  and  sole  consideration. 
The  Empress  Eugenie  has  been  accused  of  having 
had  an  important  share  in  the  war  of  1870,  whether 
with  justice  is  very  doubtful." 


25s 


CHAPTER    XIII 

MOTHER   AND    SON 

Life  at  Camden  Place — The  Prince's  coming  of  age — Arenenberg — 
Correspondence  with  Cardinal  de  Bonnechose — Death  of  the 
Prince  in  Zululand — The  farewell — Cardinal  Manning's  sermon. 

IN  the  sermon,  from  the  words  "  Suffer  the  little 
children  to  come  unto  Me,"  which  Archbishop 
Darboy  preached  at  the  Prince  Imperial's  first  com- 
munion, he  was  caught  away  in  the  vision  of  a  future. 
"  The  walls  of  this  chapel  recede  and  disappear,  and 
behind  you  I  see  all  France  with  half  a  century  of  her 
history."  Storms  and  conflicts  were  foreshadowed, 
and  if  the  Archbishop  could  have  pierced  in  imagina- 
tion the  veil  of  destiny  he  might  have  used,  with  far 
more  emphasis,  the  words  "  Cette  austere  vision." 

The  Prince  was  not  yet  seventeen  when  by  the 
death  of  his  father  he  succeeded  to  the  shadowy  title 
of  Napoleon  IV.  A  residence  of  three  years  in 
England  had  effaced  the  gloomiest  memories  of 
flight  and  exile,  and  at  the  Woolwich  Academy  he 
won  the  affection  of  his  comrades  and  tutors  by  his 
simple,  unaffected  manners  and  genial  disposition. 
The  holidays  were  spent  at  Camden  Place,  Chisle- 
hurst,  the  house  which  Dr.  Evans  had  hired  for  the 
Empress. 

Camden  Place,  though  now  transformed  into  a 
golf-house,    is    full    of    memories    of    the    Imperial 

259 


Mother  and  Son 

family.  They  found  the  situation  rather  too  near 
town  for  complete  privacy,  but  it  was  convenient 
for  the  fallen  Emperor  to  be  within  easy  reach  of 
his  many  French  visitors.  For  Dr.  Evans  it  had 
been  an  anxious  task  to  discover  a  furnished  house 
of  sufficient  size,  of  which  the  Empress  could  take 
possession  immediately.  Sinister  as  was  the  legend 
of  Camden  Place,  where  a  double  murder  had  been 
committed  in  May,  1813,  its  sunny  rooms  and  plea- 
sant grounds  must  have  impressed  the  new  tenants 
favourably.  Standing  to-day  in  the  bed-chamber 
where  Napoleon  died,  or  in  Eugenie's  spacious  room, 
we  see  before  the  windows  a  broad  stretch  of  grass 
like  the  park  of  a  French  chateau,  and  beyond  that 
an  undulating  line  of  trees.  Eyes  accustomed  to 
the  magnificent  parks  of  Saint  Cloud  and  Fontaine- 
bleau  must  have  rested  with  satisfaction  on  that 
far-spreading,  velvet  turf.  The  house  stands  a  little 
apart  from  Chislehurst  Common,  and  can  be  reached 
in  a  few  minutes  from  the  station.  Iron  gates  lead 
into  the  little  avenue,  with  its  ancient  elms  and 
beeches.  Autumn  tints  were  glowing  when  the 
Empress  first  came  to  Chislehurst,  and  the  russet 
gold  of  elms  and  beeches  contrasted  with  the  shadowy 
dusk  of  the  massive  group  of  cedars  near  the  house. 
"  The  impression  produced  upon  us,  as  we  passed 
through  the  park,"  says  Dr.  Evans,  "  was  ex- 
tremely pleasing  ;  the  colour  was  so  soft  and  yet  so 
varied,  the  calm,  the  restfulness,  so  complete,  that 
the  place  seemed  to  be  indeed  an  ideal  retreat  for 
one  seeking  a  surcease  from  the  turmoil  and  trouble 
of  the  world." 

The    plan    of    Camden    Pla^e    is    rambling   and 

260 


Camden  Place,  Chislehurst 

eccentric,  and  to  a  modern  builder  much  space  would 
appear  to  be  wasted  on  landings,  corridors,  and  short 
flights  of  stairs.  The  dining-room  is  decorated,  as 
it  was  in  1870,  with  French  mahogany.  In  the  hall, 
where  to-day  golfing  parties  laugh  and  jest,  the 
bodies  of  Napoleon  and  his  son  once  lay  in  state. 

A  gilt-railed  staircase  leads  to  the  three  rooms 
which  are  most  intimately  associated  with  the  Em- 
press. Here  is  the  modest  chamber  in  which  the 
exile's  sufferings  ended.  Not  far  off  is  the  much 
larger  and  more  beautiful  apartment  used  by  the 
Empress  as  boudoir  and  sleeping-place.  In  the 
Prince  Imperial's  room  there  is  a  touching  memorial 
of  the  Chislehurst  days — the  marks  on  the  door- 
frame showing  the  boy's  height  from  year  to  year. 
It  was  his  mother's  pride  to  keep  this  record  of  his 
growth,  and  these  eloquent  figures  are  almost  the 
only  relics  of  him  which  Camden  Place  possesses. 

Among  the  members  of  the  little  court  which 
gathered  at  Chislehurst  were  the  Duke  of  Bassano, 
Baron  Corvisart  (the  Imperial  physician),  Dr.  Con- 
neau,  Count  and  Countess  Clary,  Madame  Lebreton, 
M.  Pietri,  and  M.  Augustin  Filon  (the  Prince's  ex- 
cellent tutor).  M.  Rouher,  the  former  "  vice- 
Emperor,"  was  a  frequent  visitor.  Each  of  these 
old  friends  remained  faithful  to  the  Empress  after 
her  husband's  death.  She  enjoyed  the  occasional 
society  of  her  young  nieces,  and  of  her  dear  com- 
panion the  Duchess  of  Mouchy.  All  the  hopes  of 
the  widowed  Empress  were  anchored  in  the  future  of 
her  son.  When  Count  Clary  brought  him  from 
Woolwich  to  his  father's  deathbed,  she  met  him  at 
the  entrance  to  the  room  in  which  Napoleon  had 


Sol 


Mother  and  Son 

passed  away,  and  said,  as  she  clasped  him  to  her 
breast,  "  Je  n'ai  plus  que  toi,  Louis."  He  was  to 
be  spared  to  her  less  than  seven  years  longer. 

It  is  the  fashion  among  certain  French  authors  to 
accuse  the  Empress  of  having  shown  meanness  to- 
wards her  son  in  money  matters.  According  to 
some  of  the  Prince's  biographers,  one  of  the  strongest 
motives  for  his  departure  to  Zululand  in  1879  was  a 
desire  to  escape  from  the  irritating  bondage  of  his 
mother's  control. 

M.  d'Herisson  tells  a  characteristic  story  which 
proves,  at  least,  that  the  Prince  Imperial,  like  every 
royal  youth,  had  those  about  him  who  were  ready 
to  tempt  him  to  extravagance.  M.  Bachon,  the 
Prince's  former  equerry,  chancing  to  visit  him  at 
Chislehurst,  remarked  on  the  wretched  horse  which 
the  young  man  was  riding,  and  offered  to  find  him 
a  better  one.  He  returned  from  London  a  few  days 
later,  and  announced  that  he  had  found  a  splendid 
animal  at  the  moderate  price  of  six  thousand  francs. 
"  Six  thousand  francs  !  "  said  the  Prince — "  a  mere 
nothing,  you  tell  me !  I  daresay  it  may  be  so,  but  that 
price  is  too  high  for  me.    I  have  not  got  the  money." 

"  Don't  trouble  about  that,  sir,  but  let  me  go  and 
ask  the  Empress  for  it." 

At  this  suggestion  the  Prince's  manner  changed, 
and  he  peremptorily  forbade  M.  Bachon  to  ask  any- 
thing from  his  mother.  "  The  Prince's  constant 
lack  of  money,  his  comparative  penury,  was  per- 
fectly well  known  to  the  Empress,"  adds  M.  d'Heris- 
son. "  She  desired,  she  willed,  that  it  should  be  so. 
'  If  you  want  anything,'  she  used  to  say,  '  ask  me, 
and  you  shall  have  it  at  once 

262 


>  »> 


The  Prince's  Income 

A  different  view  is  taken  by  M.  Ernest  Pinard, 
who  as  Minister  of  the  Interior  had  won  the  Em- 
press's regard.  "  I  never  knew/'  he  says,  "  what 
allowance  the  Empress  made  to  her  son  during  his 
minority,  but  I  know,  and  I  wish  to  state  the  fact 
distinctly,  that  the  fortune  (which  would  be  con- 
sidered moderate  for  Royalty,  though  large  for  a 
private  individual)  was  divided  equally  with  the 
Prince  Imperial  before  his  departure  for  the  Cape, 
and  that  his  position  at  that  time  was  one  of  ab- 
solute independence." 

M.  d'Herisson's  further  statement  that  Eugenie, 
who  had  been  three  times  Regent  in  France,  could 
not  bear  to  efface  herself  before  her  son,  is  contra- 
vened by  the  testimony  of  Granier  de  Cassagnac, 
who  visited  Chislehurst  soon  after  the  Prince  reached 
his  majority.  He  met  the  Empress  and  her  son 
leaving  the  house  in  order  to  attend  Mass  at  St. 
Mary's  Roman  Catholic  Church.  "  Instinctively," 
he  says,  '  I  moved  forward  to  greet  the  Empress, 
but  she  made  a  sign  with  her  hand  and  showed  me 
the  Prince.  I  understood  then  that  it  was  the  Em- 
press's desire  that  I  should  first  salute  Napoleon  IV 
and  then  return  to  her  ;   and  I  obeyed." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  till  the  last  day  of  her 
son's  life  the  Empress  hoped  to  see  him  on  the  throne 
of  France.  She  shared  in  the  joys  of  the  coming- 
of-age  festivity  on  16  March,  1874,  when,  for  the 
first  time  since  the  death  of  Napoleon  III,  a  great 
concourse  of  loyal  Bonapartists  assembled  at  Chisle- 
hurst. Thousands  of  Englishmen  can  still  remember 
the  solemn  and  mournful  pageant  of  January,  1873. 
The  majority  of  the  little  Prince  was  the  occasion 

263 


Mother  and  Son 

for  a  pilgrimage  of  Frenchmen  of  all  ranks  and  classes 
who  still  clung  fondly  to  the  hope  of  a  revival  of  the 
Empire.  Eight  thousand  travellers  gathered  in  the 
Kentish  village,  and  in  their  numbers  were  included 
twelve  ex-ministers  of  the  Emperor.  The  most  in- 
teresting account  of  the  day's  proceedings  is  that 
contained  in  a  pamphlet  by  Abel  Neveu,  La  haute 
Vienne  a  Chislehurst.  These  unadorned  pages  teach 
us  how  profound  was  the  loyalty  cherished  for  the 
Bonapartes  in  some  of  the  remoter  regions  of  France. 
After  three  years  the  country  was  in  a  more  wretched 
condition  than  had  ever  been  known  under  the  Em- 
pire. Taxes  were  high,  and  showed  a  tendency  to 
increase  ;  there  was  a  widespread  lack  of  employ- 
ment ;  the  horrors  of  the  Commune  were  fresh  in 
memory  ;  and  the  Republican  Government  inspired 
little  confidence.  As  the  sky  grew  darker  around 
them,  men's  eyes  turned  wistfully  towards  the  dull 
crimson  glow  which  lingered  on  the  horizon  above 
the  sunken  sun,  and  they  dreamed  of  dawn  and  a  to- 
morrow. 

The  pilgrims  were  led  through  the  house  of  exile 
as  mediaeval  travellers  were  conducted  to  the  shrine 
of  St.  Thomas.  They  looked  reverently  at  the  little 
iron  bed  on  which  Napoleon  died,  noted  his  travelling 
clock  and  his  pistols,  and  on  a  table  his  famous 
Charlemagne  talisman.  Long  and  earnestly  they 
viewed  the  portrait  suspended  at  the  head  of  the 
couch,  and  the  crown  of  violets  at  the  foot.  M. 
Neveu  tells  how  he  saw  the  last  book  which  Na- 
poleon had  read,  with  his  paper  cutter  still  inserted 
at  a  page.  M.  Rouher  and  Dr.  Conneau  acted  as 
guides,  and  the  Emperor  could  have  desired  none  who 

264 


The  Prince's  Majority 

were  more  likely  to  speak  him  fair  in  death.  The 
Empress  and  the  Prince  Imperial  must  have  been 
far  more  deeply  touched  by  the  homage  and  the  gifts 
of  these  faithful  Frenchmen  than  by  the  myriad- 
tongued  applause  which  had  greeted  them  in  the  old 
prosperous  days. 

The  eighteen-year-old  Prince  responded  in  a 
graceful  and  well-composed  address  to  the  con- 
gratulatory speech  of  the  Duke  of  Padoue,  which 
had  closed  with  an  appeal  to  the  fourth  Napoleon 
to  hold  himself  ready  to  accomplish  the  designs  of 
Providence. 

M.  Rouher  and  other  wise  counsellors,  we  may  be 
certain,  had  worked  long  and  earnestly  over  the 
Prince's  manifesto.  The  critical  passages  were  the 
sixth  and  seventh  paragraphs,  in  which  he  contem- 
plated the  possibility  that  France  might  at  some 
future  election  make  choice  of  the  son  of  Napoleon 
III,  and  promised,  in  such  an  event,  to  accept  the 
responsibility  laid  upon  him  by  the  nation's  will. 
To  the  Empress  he  made  a  brief  reference  : 

"  Uni  a  ma  mere  par  la  plus  tendre  et  la  plus 
reconnaissante  affection,  je  travaillerai  sans  relache 
a  devancer  le  progres  des  annees." 

The  Empress,  surrounded  by  many  of  her  former 
Court,  enchanted  all  visitors  that  day  by  her  majesty 
and  sweetness.  She  moved  from  group  to  group, 
with  a  word  or  a  smile  for  every  one,  surprising  some 
of  the  older  guests  with  her  personal  recollections  of 
historic  events  long  past,  or  of  some  service  which 
they  had  rendered  to  the  Emperor  and  their  country. 

The  most  tiring  duty  was  the  reception  of  in- 
numerable   deputations.     Towards    five    o'clock    a 


Mother  and   Son 

shout  was  raised  of  "  Vive  l'Empereur !  "  The  crowd 
closed  in  upon  the  Prince,  who  was  lifted  off  his  feet 
and  carried  back  to  the  entrance  of  the  house.  He 
showed  himself  once  more  on  the  balcony,  and  said 
a  word  of  farewell.  In  the  gathering  dusk  the  pil- 
grims returned  to  the  station,  and  the  memorable 
day  closed  with  a  private  dinner  to  the  statesmen 
and  ex-officials  who  had  visited  Camden  Place. 

By  the  English  press  the  Prince's  coming  of  age 
was  recognized  as  an  event  of  some  political  im- 
portance, since  it  kept  alive  in  France  the  knowledge 
that  there  was  still  an  heir  to  the  Napoleonic  crown. 

The  good  sense  of  the  official  manifesto  was 
generally  acknowledged.  Bitter  references  to  in- 
dividuals had  been  avoided,  and  no  sentence  had 
aroused  more  enthusiasm  than  that  in  which  the 
Prince  referred  to  Marshal  MacMahon,  "  My  father's 
companion  in  glory  and  misfortune."  The  Times 
said  in  a  leading  article  on  17  March  : — 

"  Time  is  at  present  on  his  side.  He  is  too  young 
to  manifest  any  policy  of  his  own,  and  thus  to 
alienate  popular  support,  and  as  months  go  by,  a 
feeling  seems  to  be  growing  in  France  that  the  dis- 
asters of  the  last  days  of  the  Empire  were  the  mis- 
fortune rather  than  the  fault  of  Napoleon  III,  and 
that  the  blame  must  be  thrown  in  equal  proportions 
on  Bismarck  and  the  wickedness  of  "  traitors," 
who  can  be  all  the  more  freely  condemned  because 
no  one  quite  understands  who  are  included  in  the 
phrase." 

Prince  Jerome  Napoleon  was  now,  as  in  earlier 
years,  a  cause  of  trouble  to  the  Empress.  He  had 
attended  Napoleon's  funeral  in  January,  1873,  but 

266 


The  Cardinal   de   Bonnechose 

about  the  same  time  a  curious  letter  appeared  in 
the  Times,  the  writer  of  which  claimed  for  King 
Jerome's  son  the  position  of  head  of  the  family,  and 
added  that  while  his  friendship  for  his  cousin  had 
induced  him  to  attend  the  funeral,  he  repudiated  all 
share  in  the  policy  of  the  Empress  and  her  party. 
A  secretary  of  Prince  Napoleon  disclaimed,  on  his 
behalf,  all  responsibility  for  statements  not  signed 
by  his  name,  but  it  was  generally  believed  at  the 
time  that  he  was  pursuing  his  own  selfish  interests, 
apart  from  those  of  the  young  boy  who  had  been  left 
so  early  destitute  of  a  father's  care.  Prince  Na- 
poleon was,  however,  so  universally  unpopular  that 
he  never  obtained  any  serious  political  following  in 
France. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  truest  friends  of  the  exiled 
family  was  the  Cardinal  de  Bonnechose.  Many  in- 
teresting letters  passed  between  him  and  the  Em- 
press.    Writing  on  10  January,  1875,  Eugenie  says, 

The  words  of  affectionate  condolence  in  our  mis- 
fortunes which  your  Eminence  sends  are  precious 
to  us  both.  God  has  given  to  His  representatives 
on  earth  the  gift  of  softening  griefs  and  replacing 
them  by  hope.  Everything  here  below  disappears 
and  vanishes,  but  better  days  are  promised  to  those 
who  have  suffered  greatly." 

The  Imperial  lady  entreats  the  prayers  of  the 
Archbishop  "  for  him  who  is  no  more,  and  for  my 
son,  that  God  may  grant  him  the  virtues  which  will 
be  needed,  if  he  should  one  day  return  to  France.  I 
received  yesterday,"  she  goes  on,  "  a  telegram  in- 
forming us  that  Mass  for  the  repose  of  my  dear  Em- 
peror's soul  had  been  celebrated  in  the  Cathedral 

267 


Mother  and  Son 

[of  Rouen].  We  thank  your  Eminence  for  that ; 
I  feel  myself  sweetly  consoled  each  time  that  my 
prayers  find  an  echo  in  France." 

The  Prince  himself,  writing  to  the  Cardinal  in 
December,  1875,  prays  for  divine  help  that  he  may 
act  always  with  the  wisdom  and  courage  necessary 
for  him  who  may  be  called  to  rule  over  a  great 
country. 

In  the  year  before  his  death  the  Prince  spent  part 
of  the  autumn  with  his  mother  at  Arenenberg,  and 
Cardinal  de  Bonnechose  was  their  guest  for  three 
days.  They  had  recently  visited  Rome,  and  had 
been  received  by  Pius  IX  with  all  the  honours  paid 
to  a  sovereign.  When  the  young  Prince  declared 
that  if  ever  he  came  to  the  throne  he  would  defend 
the  Church,  the  Pope  answered  his  godson  with 
smiling  courtesy,  but  refused  to  give  any  political 
encouragement.  Still  the  eyes  of  great  Churchmen 
were  fixed  on  the  heir  of  the  Bonapartes.  "  Na- 
poleon IV,"  wrote  the  Cardinal  in  his  journal,  "  may 
be  called  to  reign.  Should  he  not,  before  that  time 
arrives,  have  received  counsel  in  the  interests  of  the 
Church  ?  " 

Arenenberg,  the  little  chateau  of  Queen  Hortense, 
stands  on  a  hill  overlooking  Lake  Constance.  The 
Cardinal  noted  that  the  life  there  was  too  quiet  for 
the  Prince,  though  the  Empress  amused  herself  with 
long  walks  which  lasted  most  of  the  day.  He  had 
several  private  talks  with  the  young  man,  and  ap- 
pears to  have  won  his  confidence.  His  disposition, 
says  Mgr.  de  Bonnechose,  was  generous  and  daring. 
In  conversation  he  allowed  his  mother  to  take  the 
lead,  avoided  politics,  and  refrained  from  uttering 

268 


Life  at  Arenenberg 

a  word  which  could  injure  any  one's  reputation. 
"  Le  regard  de  predestine  "  must  have  haunted  the 
Cardinal's  thoughts,  for  he  speaks  of  the  Prince's 
gentle,  dreamy  face,  blue,  melancholy  eyes,  and 
thoughtful,  open  brow.  "It  is  impossible,"  adds 
this  great  Churchman,  who  was  also  a  grand  seigneur, 
"  to  show  more  dignity  in  misfortune  than  is  shown 
by  the  Empress  and  her  son." 

In  October,  1878,  the  Prince  wrote  to  his  old 
friend,  "  France  is  the  object  of  my  life,  and  I  live 
only  to  serve  her — I  do  not  say  to  save  her,  for  God 
alone  can  do  that." 

As  a  New  Year's  gift  the  Cardinal  presented  to 
the  Empress  a  set  of  his  works,  and  a  gold  medallion 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin  inscribed  with  the  words  "  Spes 


unica." 


She  replied  from  Chislehurst,  "  You  are  right 
when  you  say  that  our  only  hope  lies  in  her  who  con- 
soles the  sorrowing.  I  feel  this  more  and  more  each 
day.  Divine  Providence  strengthens  our  hearts 
according  to  the  measure  of  our  trials,  and  prevents 
us  from  giving  way  to  discouragement.  The  Divine 
Mother  is  indeed  our  hope." 

Biographers  of  the  Prince  refer  vaguely  to  the 
project  for  his  marriage  to  Princess  Thyra  of  Den- 
mark, sister  of  Queen  Alexandra,  who  afterwards 
became  the  wife  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  It 
was  said  at  the  time  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  set 
his  mind  upon  the  match.  The  Cardinal  de  Bonne- 
chose,  when  visiting  Arenenberg,  asked  the  Empress 
if  the  story  was  true.  She  replied,  "  We  shall  have 
to  wait."  Loyal  Bonapartists  were  flattered  by  the 
prospect  of  their  little  prince  becoming  the  brother- 

269 


Mother  and  Son 

in-law  of  the  future  King  of  England  and  the  Czar. 
"  We  may  be  very  sure/'  wrote  one  of  them,  "  that 
these  heads  of  nations  would  not  take  for  their 
brother-in-law  a  young  man  who  was  destined  to 
remain  for  ever  in  exile." 

In  considering  the  motives  which  took  the  Prince 
Imperial  to  Zululand,  I  set  aside  entirely  the  story 
of  a  quarrel  with  his  mother  on  money  matters, 
because  I  believe  that  the  decisive  word  on  this 
question  has  been  spoken  by  M.  Pinard.  He  was 
one  of  the  three  ex-ministers  appointed  to  regulate 
the  finances  of  the  Imperial  family,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  only  will  found  after  the  death  of 
Napoleon  III  dated  from  1865.  If  at  any  time  the 
Empress  had  shown  parsimony  towards  her  son,  it 
could  only  have  been  with  the  desire  to  accumulate 
funds  which  would  be  available  when  the  time  came 
for  his  recall  to  France.  The  secret  of  the  Prince's 
heart  is  disclosed,  I  think,  in  that  touching  letter 
to  his  friend  Louis  Conneau,  which  accompanied 
the  gift  of  a  sword.  It  is  dated  from  Chislehurst, 
29  June,  1876,  and  was  first  published  by  the  Figaro. 

Louis  Conneau  was  for  some  time  at  Woolwich 
with  the  Prince  Imperial,  and  completed  his  mili- 
tary studies  at  Saint  Cyr.  When  he  entered  the 
French  army  with  the  rank  of  sub-lieutenant,  the 
Prince  sent  him  a  sword  on  which  these  words  were 
engraved,  "  Napoleon  a  L.  N.  Conneau.  Passavant 
le  Meillor."  That  ancient  French  war-cry  was  the 
motto  which  the  Bonaparte  Prince  had  chosen 
for  his  friend.  In  the  letter  he  says,  "  If  I  have  the 
happiness  I  long  for,  to  fight  side  by  side  with  you, 
I  shall  say,  when  I  see  you  strike  a  good  blow,  '  Mon 

270 


The  Prince  and   Louis  Conneau 

Dieu,  that  sword  is  Conneau,  and  Conneau's  strength 
is  in  the  sword.'  And  the  sight  of  your  courage  will 
make  me  tremble  for  joy.  If  unluckily  I  have  not 
the  good  fortune  to  share  your  peril,  if  I  cannot  strike 
some  day  in  your  good  company — well,  then,  I  shall 
comfort  myself  with  the  thought  that  this  memorial 
of  our  close  friendship  will  be  with  you  wherever 
you  go." 

"  Passavant  le  Meillor  !  "  There  was  the  secret 
of  the  young  Prince's  ambition.  It  is  only  too 
probable  that  the  despatch  which  his  father  sent 
from  Saarbruck — a  despatch  which  ought  never  to 
have  been  published — fixed  its  sting  in  the  memory 
of  the  growing  boy.  "  Louis  has  received  his  bap- 
tism of  fire — Louis  has  been  picking  up  spent  bullets" 
— how  hateful  the  recollection  of  these  words 
must  have  become  as  the  history  of  the  war  unfolded 
itself !  The  Prince's  thoughts  must  have  travelled 
beyond  the  shame  and  disgrace  in  which  he  was 
innocently  involved  to  the  renown  of  that  mighty 
ancestor  who  had  indeed  "  gone  before  the  best  " 
of  Europe's  chivalry.  How  could  he  prove  himself 
a  worthy  descendant  of  the  great  Emperor,  save  by 
perilling  his  life  on  some  field  of  honour  ?  His  letter 
reveals  the  secret  of  his  ambition — "  If  France  takes 
me  back,  I  will  come  as  a  hero."  He  desired,  it  is 
said,  to  offer  his  services  for  the  Balkan  campaign  of 
1878,  and  when,  for  diplomatic  reasons,  that  hope 
was  disappointed,  he  turned  his  thoughts  towards 
Africa. 

Writing,  after  her  son's  departure,  to  the  Cardinal 
de  Bonnechose,  the  Empress  said:  "Your  prayers 
will  protect  my  dear  son,  and  will  be  a  support  to  me 

271 


Mother  and  Son 

during  the  long  months  of  waiting  which  must  pass 
before  he  returns.  I  hope  God  will  give  him  back 
to  us  safe  and  sound,  but  it  were  better  to  lose  him 
than  to  see  him  leading  a  life  like  that  of  many  young 
men  in  this  sad  time.  I  cherish  the  hope  that  he 
may  be  protected,  and  that  Divine  Providence  is 
keeping  him  to  be  my  consolation  after  this  heavy 
trial." 

The  Prince's  own  religious  feelings  were  ex- 
pressed before  his  departure  in  a  letter  to  the 
priest  of  St.  Mary's,  Chislehurst  :  "I  thank  you, 
M.  le  Cure,  for  the  letter  you  have  been  kind  enough 
to  write  to  me.  It  proves  once  again  the  love  you 
bear  me  ;  but  I  am  anxious  that  you  should  not 
believe  that  the  hurry  of  my  departure  could  make 
me  forget  my  duties  as  a  Christian.  I  will  present 
myself  to-morrow  morning  at  eight  o'clock  to  re- 
ceive for  the  last  time  the  Holy  Communion  in  the 
Church  of  Chislehurst,  where  I  desire  to  be  placed 
when  I  die." 

It  must  have  been  with  hesitation  and  anxiety 
that  the  heads  of  our  army  permitted  the  Prince 
Imperial  to  take  part  in  the  Zulu  War.  After  the 
news  of  his  death  reached  England,  the  Duke  of 
Cambridge  read  to  the  House  of  Lords  the  letters 
he  addressed  to  Sir  Bartle  Frere  and  Lord  Chelms- 
ford. These  letters  made  it  clear  that  no  com- 
mission from  the  British  Government  had  been 
entrusted  to  the  Prince.  "He  is  going  out,"  wrote 
the  Commander-in-Chief,  "  on  his  own  account  to 
see  as  much  as  he  can  of  the  coming  campaign  in 
Zululand.  .  .  .  My  only  anxiety  on  his  behalf  would 
be  that  he  is  too  plucky  and  go-ahead." 

272 


The  Prince  in  Zululand 

The  Prince  had  wished  to  be  employed  in  the 
British  service,  but  his  military  aid  had  been  dis- 
tinctly declined. 

His  hopes  and  ambitions,  as  revealed  in  his  last 
letters  to  Louis  Conneau,  recall  a  story  of  his  ancestor 
the  great  Emperor.  On  a  cloudy  night  Marmont 
drew  Decres  to  a  window  and  said,  pointing  to  the 
sky,  "  Do  you  see  that  star  ?  "  "  No,"  replied 
Decres.  "  Can  you  not  indeed  ? — but  he  sees  it." 
"He'  was  the  Emperor.  From  Maritzburg,  on  20 
April,  the  Prince  explained  to  young  Conneau  the 
reasons  for  his  departure.  "  I  did  not  ask  advice 
from  any  one,  and  I  made  up  my  mind  in  forty-eight 
hours.  I  decided  quickly  because  I  had  long  been 
thinking  that  such  events  might  arise,  and  I  had 
formed  my  plan.  Neither  my  mother's  fears  nor  the 
despair  of  the  people  round  me,  nor  the  exhortations 
of  M.  Rouher  and  my  supporters,  could  avail  to  make 
me  hesitate,  or  lose  a  single  moment."  Certain 
rumours  may  probably  have  reached  the  Prince's 
ear,  for  he  goes  out  of  his  way  to  explain  that  the 
motives  of  his  actions  were  entirely  political.  "  I 
have  had  reason  to  know  that  people  will  follow  no 
leader  except  a  man  whose  energy  is  recognized. 
My  whole  desire  has  been  to  find  an  opportunity  of 
showing  what  I  am.  He  who  belongs  to  a  race  of 
soldiers  can  make  himself  known  to  the  world  only 
by  military  exploits." 

"  Fidus  "  (M.  Eugene  Loudon)  says  in  his  journal 
that  serious  anxiety  with  regard  to  the  Prince  was 
felt  in  Bonapartist  circles  early  in  June,  and  that 
the  Empress  wrote  reassuringly,  though  she  said  that 
her  own  heart  was  not  at  rest. 

T  273 


Mother  and  Son 

The  newspapers  of  20  June,  1879,  announced  the 
melancholy  tidings,  which  had  been  received  in  a 
message  from  Cape  Town  dated  3  June.  On  the 
first  day  of  June  the  Prince  had  gone  out  on  a  recon- 
naissance with  a  few  companions,  in  a  district  sup- 
posed to  be  free  from  danger.  The  small  party  were 
resting  and  drinking  coffee  when  they  were  surrounded 
and  attacked.  The  Prince's  stirrup  leather  gave 
way  at  the  critical  moment,  and  failing  to  mount  his 
horse,  he  was  seized  by  the  Zulus.  His  body  was 
found  later  in  a  donga  300  yards  from  a  native  kraal. 
It  was  pierced  with  seventeen  assegai  wounds,  all  in 
front,  and  the  state  of  the  grass  showed  that  he  had 
made  a  desperate  fight.  His  clothing  had  been 
taken,  but  the  superstitious  Zulus  had  left  round  his 
neck  the  gold  chain  with  locket  and  medallions 
which  he  habitually  wore. 

When  the  terrible  news  reached  England,  all 
hearts  were  full  of  grief  for  the  widowed  lady  at 
Chislehurst.  A  dreadful  insomnia  was  one  of  the 
worst  symptoms  of  her  state.  At  8  a.m.  on  Sunday 
morning,  22  June,  Baron  Corvisart  issued  the 
following  bulletin  :  "  Her  Majesty  the  Empress  is  in 
the  same  state  of  profound  grief.  Sleep  came  last 
night  for  a  few  hours." 

The  Empress  had  with  her  in  these  first  hours  of 
bereavement  the  faithful  ex-Chamberlain,  the  Duke 
of  Bassano,  who,  after  long  hesitation,  had  sum- 
moned courage  to  tell  her  of  the  death  of  her  son. 
The  Duchess  of  Mouchy,  Countess  Clary,  and 
Countess  Aguado  were  also  at  Camden  Place.  On  21 
June  the  Marchioness  of  Ely,  who  had  been  present 
at  the  Tuileries,  by  Queen  Victoria's  desire,  when 

274 


The  Voyage  of  the  "  Orontes  " 

the  Prince  was  born,  arrived  with  a  message  of  loving 
sympathy  from  Her  Majesty,  and  was  personally 
received  by  the  sorrowing  mother.  The  Queen  her- 
self visited  the  Empress  on  Monday,  23  June. 
Telegrams  of  condolence  were  received  from  every 
sovereign  in  Europe.  Personal  and  political  feuds 
were  all  forgotten  in  presence  of  this  great  calamity. 
In  many  churches  on  Sunday,  the  22nd,  sympa- 
thetic reference  was  made  to  the  Prince's  death. 

During  the  early  days  of  July  the  mother's  heart 
must  have  been  far  indeed  from  Chislehurst,  as  she 
followed  the  long  voyage  of  the  Orontes,  which 
brought  the  Prince's  remains  from  Africa. 

Thou  comest,  much  wept  for ;  such  a  breeze 
Compelled  thy  canvas,  and  my  prayer 
Was  as  the  whisper  of  an  air 
To  breathe  thee  over  lonely  seas. 

For  I  in  spirit  saw  thee  move 
Through  circles  of  the  bounding  sky 
Week  after  week  ;  the  days  go  by  : 
Come  quick ;  thou  bringest  all  I  love. 

•  •  >  •  «  • 

So  kind  an  office  hath  been  done, 
Such  precious  relics  brought  by  thee — 
The  dust  of  him  I  shall  not  see 
Until  my  widowed  race  be  run. 

"  No  earthly  consolation  is  possible  for  me," 
wrote  the  bereaved  mother,  "  after  the  loss  of  my 
beloved  son.  .  .  .  He  died  in  carrying  out  the  orders 
that  were  given  him." 

Louis  Veuillot  wrote  of  the  Prince  :  "  He  borrowed 
a  war-horse,  and  rode  forth,  on  the  first  occasion,  to 

275 


Mother  and  Son 

seek  for  death  or  glory.  Death  came  without  delay. 
It  found  him  ready.  A  Napoleon  is  able  to  do  these 
extravagant  things.  In  the  sight  of  God  they  may 
succeed  :  in  the  eyes  of  men  they  are  sublime.  Such 
deeds  are  the  secret,  humanly  speaking,  of  the  world's 
force  and  success.  .  .  .  This  boy  desired  to  serve  God 
and  France." 

Cardinal  de  Bonnechose  tells  that  as  the  Empress 
was  searching  in  her  son's  room  for  the  precious 
treasures  of  his  boyhood,  she  found  in  the  prayer- 
book  which  he  habitually  used  some  petitions  written 
in  his  own  hand,  with  corrections  and  erasures,  so 
that  it  might  be  supposed  they  were  his  own  com- 
positions. They  help  us,  perhaps,  to  understand 
that  expression  of  melancholy  which  is  seen  in  the 
Prince's  latest  portraits. 

"  My  God,  I  give  Thee  my  heart ;  wilt  Thou  grant 
me  faith  ?  Without  faith  there  can  be  no  fervent 
prayer,  and  to  pray  is  the  need  of  my  soul." 

"If,  O  my  God,  Thou  wiliest  to  scatter  over  this 
earth  but  a  certain  sum  of  happiness,  take  away  the 
share  that  should  belong  to  me." 

"  For  me,  O  my  God,  let  there  be  no  more  happi- 
ness.    I  flee  from  it.     Take  it  out  of  my  path." 

"  Give  me  a  firmer  and  deeper  conviction  that 
those  whom  I  love  and  who  have  passed  away  are 
witnessing  all  my  actions." 

Strange  and  mournful  prayers  for  one  so  young! 

Saturday,  12  July,  was  the  date  of  the  funeral  at 
Chislehurst.  "  A  scene  more  deeply  affecting  than 
the  burial  of  the  Prince  Imperial,"  wrote  the  Times, 
"  has  rarely  been  witnessed  in  modern  days." 
Members    of    the    most    distinguished    French    and 

276 


The  Prince's   Funeral 

English  families  followed  the  procession  over  Chisle- 
hurst  Common,  which  was  covered  at  that  season 
with  golden  gorse,  to  the  small,  dark  church  of  St. 
Mary,  set  amidst  lime  trees,  beeches,  and  flower- 
ing laburnums.  Earnest  sympathy  had  been  ex- 
pressed in  Parliament  for  the  Empress,  and  Queen 
Victoria  herself,  with  her  children,  was  among  the 
mourners  at  Camden  Place.  A  halo  of  glory  sur- 
rounded the  young  Prince's  bier,  for  it  was  felt  that 
he  had  gone  out  for  the  express  purpose  of  in- 
curring danger  and  proving  to  France  that  he  was  a 
gallant  soldier.  The  Princess  of  Wales  had  written 
with  her  own  hand,  on  a  card  attached  to  a  wreath  of 
violets,  "  He  died  a  soldier's  death,  fighting  for  our 
cause."  The  Queen's  words  were,  "  Souvenir  de 
vive  affection,  d'estime  et  de  profonds  regrets  de  la 
part  de  Victoria,  R."  Her  wreath  was  of  golden 
laurel.  A  cross  from  Princess  Beatrice  lay  near  Her 
Majesty's  wreath  on  the  coffin.  The  pall-bearers 
were  the  Dukes  of  Connaught  and  Cambridge,  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Sweden,  and  M.  Rouher,  on  one  side, 
and  on  the  other  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Duke  of 
Edinburgh,  Prince  Leopold,  and  the  Duke  of  Bas- 
sano.  The  Queen  did  not  enter  St.  Mary's  Church 
for  the  funeral  service,  but  after  visiting  the  afflicted 
mother  at  Camden  Place,  she  watched  the  procession 
from  a  raised  platform  draped  in  black. 

The  cadets  of  the  Woolwich  Academy  attended 
as  a  guard  of  honour,  and  a  battery  of  artillery  fired 
a  series  of  mourning  guns.  A  triple  peal  of  bells  told 
the  vast  company  assembled  outside  the  church  of 
the  elevation  of  the  host  and  chalice,  while  the  wor- 
shippers within  heard  the  cadets  firing  their  volleys 

-77 


Mother  and  Son 

as  a  tribute  to  their  dead  companion.  Never  was 
here  a  more  sorrowful  realization  of  those  last, 
solemn  lines  of  Lenau's  "  Bestattung  "  : — 

Noble  youth,  the  cannon,  dully  booming, 
To  thy  grave  the  final  honours  bring, 

As  in  summer  woodland's  sultry  glooming, 
Thunder  rolls  above  the  grave  of  spring. 

On  Sunday,  13  July,  Cardinal  Manning  preached 
the  funeral  sermon  for  the  Prince  at  St.  Mary's, 
Chislehurst,  from  the  text,  "  What  I  do  thou  knowest 
not  now,  but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter."  He  spoke 
throughout  with  tenderest  human  feeling,  and  his 
words  of  gentle  consolation  can  hardly  be  read  with- 
out tears. 

"  Ever  since  death  entered  into  the  world/'  he 
said,  "  the  dead  have  been  carried  out  and  laid  in 
their  quiet  grave,  and  the  mourners  have  gone  about 
the  streets.  In  the  long  succession  of  sorrows  there 
have  been  voices  of  lamentation  and  sympathy  in 
all  the  world.  But  perhaps  few  have  been  more 
generous,  more  tender,  and  more  widespread  than 
the  sorrow  which  yesterday  surrounded  this  bier. 
It  was  the  loving  sorrow  of  many  nations — a  sorrow 
pure  and  generous,  springing  from  the  heart  and 
reaching  to  the  throne  of  God." 

Towards  the  close  the  Cardinal  said :  "  If  ever 
mother  loved  a  son  as  an  only  son  alone  can  be 
loved,  it  was  she.  What  a  desolation  now!  The 
solitary  home !  All  alone !  Yet  not  alone,  for 
they  who  believe  are  never  lonely.  They  have 
come  unto  Mount  Sion  and  the  city  of  the  living 
God,  to  the  company  of  many  thousands  of  angels, 
to  the  Church  of  the  first-born  who  are  written  in 

278 


Cardinal   Manning's   Sermon 

the  heavens,  to  God,  the  Judge  of  all,  to  the  spirits 
of  the  just  made  perfect,  to  the  great  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses ever  about  them.  The  communion  of  saints 
is  their  home  and  their  dwelling-place.  .  .  .  And 
what  is  the  longest  life  of  waiting  but  a  little  while 
at  last?" 


279 


CHAPTER    XIV 

THE   LONELY   YEARS 

The  Empress  and  Queen  Victoria — The  visit  to  South  Africa — Life 
at  Farnborough — The  memorial  church. 

As  the  bird  trims  her  to  the  gale, 
I  trim  myself  to  the  storm  of  time. 

THESE  lines  of  Emerson's  are  truly  the  key- 
note of  the  Empress  Eugenie's  later  career. 
After  the  death  of  her  son  it  was  rumoured  that  she 
intended  to  seek  refuge  in  a  convent,  but  such  a  living 
burial  would  have  been  impossible  to  her  healthy 
and  vigorous  nature.  A  life  in  the  past  need  not 
be  necessarily  a  life  among  the  tombs.  "  The  past," 
as  Hazlitt  says,  "  is  alive  and  stirring  with  objects 
bright  and  solemn,  of  unfading  interest."  "  Le 
droit  au  soleil "  may  be  claimed  by  a  widowed 
Empress  as  by  the  humblest  of  the  people. 

It  was  not  till  old  age  that  this  caged  bird  of  the 
palace  regained  her  freedom.  "  Quand  eclatera," 
cried  Montalembert,  "  le  besoin  de  respirer,  de  voir, 
de  parler,  de  juger,  de  critiquer,  qui  n'a  jamais  pu 
etre  extirpe  de  ce  pays,  pas  plus  sous  l'ancien  regime 
que  sous  Napoleon  ?  "  Did  the  great  writer  ever 
realize  that  the  most  prisoned  soul  under  the  Second 
Empire  was  that  of  the  beautiful  woman  who  shared 
the  throne  ?  Eugenie  learned  by  sad  experience 
the  lesson  which  Savonarola  gave  to  Romola,  "  My 

280 


Queen  Victoria  and  the   Empress 

daughter,  if  the  cross  comes  to  you  as  a  wife,  you 
must  bear  it  as  a  wife."  And  like  Romola,  she  has 
found  it  possible  to  live  for  many  years  after  the 
great  storms  of  life  have  passed  by.  "  It  is  but  once 
that  we  can  know  our  worst  sorrows,  and  Romola 
had  known  them  while  life  was  new."  The  Empress 
has  sorrowed  indeed,  but  not  as  those  who  have  no 
hope. 

From  the  first  hour  of  her  widowhood  she  was 
drawn  into  Queen  Victoria's  sheltering  arms.  Visi- 
tors to  the  little  church  at  Chislehurst  saw  resting 
there  thirty  years  ago  the  sarcophagus  of  Aberdeen 
granite,  which  had  been  offered  to  the  Empress  as 
a  mark  of  affectionate  sympathy  by  Victoria  R. 
Above  it  hung  Napoleon's  banner  as  a  Knight  of  the 
Garter,  which  was  removed  from  St.  George's 
Chapel  in  Windsor. 

It  was  the  Queen  who  encouraged  the  bereaved 
mother  to  proceed  to  South  Africa  in  1880,  that  the 
"  sad  mechanic  exercise  "  of  travel  might  relieve 
her  burdened  heart.  On  25  March  Eugenie  sailed 
for  the  Cape  on  board  the  German.  In  her  suite  was 
the  Marquis  of  Bassano,  son  of  the  old  and  faithful 
friend  who  had  broken  to  her  the  sad  news  of  the 
Prince's  death.  Accompanying  her  were  also  Sir 
Evelyn  and  Lady  Wood,  and  several  ladies  who  had 
lost  relatives  in  the  Zulu  War.  With  the  servants 
in  attendance  was  Uhlmann,  the  Prince  Imperial's 
valet,  who  had  travelled  with  his  master's  remains 
from  Zululand  to  Chislehurst.  Sir  Bartle  Frere 
received  the  Empress  on  her  landing  at  Cape  Town, 
and  entertained  her  at  Government  House.  Rooms 
had  been  specially  fitted  and  refurnished  for  her 

2S1 


The  Lonely  Years 

accommodation.  The  public  of  the  Colony,  under- 
standing the  purpose  of  her  pilgrimage  and  respect- 
ing her  sorrow,  allowed  her  to  come  and  go  as  a 
private  individual.  On  her  Sunday  at  Cape  Town 
the  Empress  attended  Mass  at  the  Roman  Catholic 
cathedral.  She  also  visited  the  Botanic  Gardens, 
and  walked  through  the  beautiful  conservatories. 
Before  leaving  for  Natal,  she  learned  that  the  ex- 
pedition which  had  gone  to  Isandhlwana  to  place  a 
cross,  the  gift  of  Queen  Victoria,  on  the  spot  where 
the  Prince  fell,  had  safely  returned  to  Maritzburg. 

Among  all  classes  in  Natal  there  was  the  keenest 
interest  in  the  movements  of  "  the  Countess  of 
Pierrefonds."  To  quote  the  Cape  Argus  :  "  Gov- 
ernors may  come  and  lieutenant-governors  may 
go,  but  these  are  of  small  concern  to  us  at  present.,, 
At  Durban  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  went  to  meet  the 
German  on  her  arrival,  and  the  Empress  landed  after 
dark,  by  the  light  of  a  full  moon.  During  her  stay 
at  Durban  she  lived  in  strict  seclusion.  The  house 
and  grounds  of  her  host,  Captain  Baynton,  were 
kept  absolutely  private,  and  callers  subscribed  their 
names  in  a  book  placed  in  a  tent  outside  the  garden. 

The  nuns  of  the  convent  near  the  Roman  Catholic 
chapel  received  a  visit  from  the  Imperial  lady,  who 
went  over  their  schools,  heard  the  children  sing  their 
hymns,  and  expressed  much  pleasure  at  meeting 
a  Frenchwoman  among  the  sisters.  Before  leaving 
Durban  she  thanked  Mr.  Currie,  the  Mayor,  for  a 
reception  so  completely  in  harmony  with  her 
wishes,  and  for  the  kindness  shown  in  the  previous 
year  to  her  son.  A  Cape  paper  wrote  :  "  The  Em- 
press has  won  all  hearts  by  her  gracious  manner.     A 

282 


The  Empress  in  South  Africa 

number  of  children,  playing  on  the  grass  outside  the 
grounds  of  the  house,  were  called  to  her,  and  after 
being  kept  for  some  time  in  conversation,  were  dis- 
missed with  presents." 

From  Durban  the  party  proceeded  to  Maritzburg, 
travelling  by  the  unfinished  railway  (which  the  Em- 
press described  as  the  most  wonderful  she  had  ever 
seen)  to  a  point  beyond  Botha's  Hill,  and  after- 
wards by  "  spider  "  to  the  town.  As  at  Cape  Town 
and  Durban,  no  visitors  were  admitted,  but  the 
Empress  drove  out  to  see  Fort  Napier  and  the  con- 
vent. 

The  next  stage  of  the  pilgrimage  was  Greytown, 
from  which  she  travelled  via  Helpmakaar  and 
Dundee  to  the  scene  of  the  Prince's  death.  Photo- 
graphs were  already  on  sale  at  Maritzburg,  showing 
the  first  rude  cairn  raised  to  mark  the  spot,  the 
hardly  less  rude  cross  planted  on  the  grave  im- 
mediately afterwards,  and  Queen  Victoria's  cross 
in  its  neat  enclosure.  The  custody  of  the  Queen's 
cross  had  been  handed  over  to  the  repentant  Zulu 
chief  whose  people  murdered  the  Prince. 

In  the  Cape  Argus  of  31  May  it  was  announced 
that  the  Empress  had  arrived  at  the  scene  of  the 
tragedy.  There,  on  1  June,  the  anniversary  of  her 
son's  death,  a  solemn  requiem  service  was  conducted 
in  her  presence.  When  the  service  was  ended,  all 
strangers  retired,  and  Eugenie  alone  watched  and 
prayed  through  the  hours  of  night  on  the  spot  where 
her  son  had  fallen.  Funeral  tapers  and  wreaths  of 
immortelles,  sent  by  the  Queen  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  were  placed  near  the  cross,  and  the  Empress 
herself  laid   memorials  on   the  graves  of  the   two 

2SJ 


The  Lonely  Years 

troopers  who  fell  with  the  Prince.  An  account  of 
the  time  mentions  that,  though  deeply  shaken,  she 
preserved  her  health  through  all  these  trying  ex- 
periences, and  was  able  to  visit  Rorke's  Drift  and 
other  places  of  interest  before  returning  to  Maritz- 
burg.  The  home  journey  was  made  on  board  the 
Trojan.  One  of  the  last  incidents  at  Durban  was 
the  visit  to  the  steamer  Danube,  on  which  the  ill- 
fated  Prince  had  gone  out  to  Natal.  As  his  mother 
stood  on  the  companion-way,  where  she  had  taken 
her  last  leave  of  him  at  Southampton,  all  the  tragedy 
of  his  fate  rushed  back  upon  her  memory,  and  she 
questioned  Captain  Draper  tearfully  about  the  in- 
cidents of  the  voyage. 

In  the  autumn  of  1880  it  was  reported  that  the 
Empress  intended  to  live  for  the  future  at  Arenen- 
berg,  and  to  convey  to  her  Swiss  estate  the  mortal 
remains  of  the  late  Emperor  and  the  Prince  Imperial. 
In  the  following  year  she  left  Chislehurst,  but  not  to 
seek  a  refuge  in  Switzerland,  far  from  all  her  friends. 
In  Hampshire,  within  easy  reach  of  Bagshot  and 
Windsor,  a  beautiful  and  secluded  home  was  found 
for  her. 

Farnborough  Hill,  where  the  Empress  has  lived 
for  twenty-five  years,  is  situated  about  thirty-two 
miles  from  London,  half-way  between  the  Royal 
Military  School  at  Sandhurst  and  the  camp  at  Alder- 
shot.  The  estate,  which  now  includes  about  275 
acres,  was  purchased,  along  with  the  mansion,  in 
1881,  from  Mr.  Longman,  head  of  the  well-known 
publishing  firm  in  Paternoster  Row. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  leaving  Chislehurst, 
though  not  the  only  one,  was  the  impossibility  of 

284 


Life  at   Farnborough 

erecting  a  mausoleum  there  to  her  husband  and  son. 
It  was  thought  that  a  site  might  be  found  in  a  field 
to  the  westward  of  the  little  church  of  St.  Mary,  but 
this  was  the  property  of  a  rich  city  firm,  who  did  not 
care  to  sell  it.  A  suggestion  was  made  that  the 
memorial  chapel  might  be  erected  on  the  north  side 
of  St.  Mary's.  The  Empress  may  perhaps  have  been 
influenced  by  the  old  superstition  that  the  sun  never 
shines  upon  graves  placed  to  the  north  of  a  church. 
In  any  case,  the  plan  was  given  up,  and  not  long 
afterwards  the  Empress's  solicitor  recommended  to 
her  the  estate  of  Farnborough  Hill.  The  house  was 
formerly  known  as  "  Windmill  Hill,"  from  a  mill  that 
stood  there.  The  property  had  once  belonged  to 
Dr.  Chandler,  Dean  of  Chichester,  whose  nephew 
sold  it  about  the  year  1859  to  Mr.  Longman's 
father. 

The  London  road  passes  through  the  estate,  but 
in  summer  time  only  a  glimpse  of  the  house  can  be 
obtained,  as  it  is  concealed  on  every  side  by  the 
luxurious  growth  of  trees.  The  hollies  and  beeches 
round  Farnborough,  the  wide  commons  covered  in 
autumn  with  purple  heather,  add  to  the  picturesque- 
ness  of  the  district. 

Farnborough  mansion  is  built  partly  in  the  Swiss 
and  partly  in  the  Welsh  style.  The  gardens  are  ex- 
tensive, with  graperies,  fernery,  greenhouses,  and 
orchid-houses.  The  ornamental  grounds  contain 
artificial  lakes,  with  small  wooded  islands.  The 
house  stands  on  an  elevated  plateau,  its  principal 
frontages  facing  east  and  west.  The  Empress  has 
made  important  additions  to  the  house  built  by  Mr. 
Longman,  but  she  allowed  the  well-known  cognizance 

285 


The  Lonely  Years 

of  the  firm — the  Ship  and  Swan — carved  as  an  orna- 
ment on  the  outside  walls,  to  remain  untouched. 

In  the  principal  entrance-hall  hangs  Winter- 
halter's  picture  of  the  Empress  with  her  ladies-in- 
waiting.  Here  also  is  the  perambulator  of  the  late 
Prince  Imperial,  presented  by  the  Prince  Consort  to 
the  Empress  fifty  years  ago.  The  rooms  on  the 
ground  floor  are  full  of  interesting  pictures  of  the 
Bonaparte  family.  One  of  these  rooms  is  used  by 
Her  Majesty  as  a  study,  and  in  it  there  is  a  bookcase 
containing  the  newest  English  literature.  In  girl- 
hood Eugenie  read  the  works  of  Fourier,  and  in  old 
age  she  has  studied  General  Booth's  In  Darkest 
England. 

The  drawing-room  at  Farnborough  is  of  moderate 
size,  and  cheerfully  furnished.  In  the  gallery, 
which  runs  the  entire  length  of  the  house,  there  are 
some  fine  pieces  of  Gobelins  tapestry.  Here,  too, 
are  cabinets  containing  rare  Sevres  china,  some  of 
which  belonged  to  the  great  Emperor.  The  hand- 
somest room  in  the  house  is  the  "  salle  des  festins," 
which  is  lighted  by  a  bay  window  looking  westward, 
and  by  another  with  northern  aspect.  The  ceiling 
is  richly  painted,  and  the  walls  and  chairs  are  hung 
with  tapestry  at  least  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  old. 
This  dining-room  communicates  with  the  kitchens. 
The  china,  glass,  dessert-services,  plate,  etc.,  which 
are  used  at  Farnborough  are  marked  with  the  Im- 
perial Crown  and  the  letter  "  N." 

The  servants'  hall  is  a  comfortably  furnished 
room,  with  a  piano,  and  a  polished  oak  floor.  A 
picture  of  the  late  Emperor  occupies  the  place  of 
honour.     One  of  the  curiosities  of  Farnborough  is 

286 


Relics  of  the  Young  Prince 

the  large  iron  room,  which  will  ultimately  be  used 
as  a  museum  for  Napoleonic  relics.  Here  are  kept 
two  state  carriages,  lined  with  white  silk,  with 
steps  covered  with  fine  needlework.  The  harness 
for  the  eight  horses  which  are  required  to  draw 
these  heavily  built  vehicles  hangs  upon  the  walls, 
and  is  ornamented  with  gilding. 

The  Empress's  bedroom,  which  has  a  southward 
and  eastward  aspect,  commands  a  view  of  the  church 
across  the  valley.  Here  are  hung  many  family 
portraits  in  small  frames.  The  private  chapel,  used 
for  morning  and  evening  devotions,  is  in  the  tall 
central  tower,  and  contains  a  simple  altar  without 
ornamentation.  In  one  corner  stands  the  cradle 
of  the  Prince  Imperial,  lined  with  faded  silk. 

The  "  Prince's  study  "  is  at  the  southern  end  of 
the  corridor,  and  not  far  off  is  his  statue  in  white 
marble,  set  off  by  tall  African  grasses  which  were 
brought  by  the  Empress  from  the  scene  of  his  death. 
The  study  is  full  of  the  Prince's  personal  belongings. 
Here  is  the  boat-shaped  state  cradle,  presented  by 
the  municipality  of  Paris  to  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press. It  is  made  of  polished  oak  and  silver,  and  a 
female  figure  in  bronze  gilt  holds  up  the  hangings  at 
the  head.  An  ebony  cabinet  contains  relics  of  the 
Prince's  journey  to  Zululand,  his  books  of  devotion, 
his  pocket-book,  and  little  articles  for  personal  use. 
His  uniform,  or  rather  the  fragments  of  it  which 
were  recovered  from  the  Zulus,  is  kept  in  a  locked 
cupboard,  which  has  on  the  outside  a  life-like  panel 
painting  of  the  young  soldier. 

The  Church  of  St.  Michael,  Farnborough,  was 
completed  in  the  year  1884  at  the  Empress's  cost. 

287 


The   Lonely   Years 

It  was  designed  by  De  Tailleur,  the  celebrated 
French  architect,  and  in  general  appearance  resembles 
the  Abbey  of  Hautcomb  in  Savoy.  It  is  remark- 
able for  its  rich  external  decoration,  its  graceful 
pinnacles  and  numerous  gargoyles.  The  memorial 
chapel,  or  mausoleum,  is  in  a  crypt  below  the  chancel. 
On  the  left  is  the  sarcophagus  which  holds  the  body 
of  the  Prince  Imperial,  and  on  the  right  that  of  the 
late  Emperor  in  the  granite  tomb  presented  by 
Queen  Victoria. 

The  visitor  to  Farnborough  should  choose  by 
preference  a  spring  morning,  when  the  gorse  is 
golden  on  the  moor  and  the  birds  are  calling  to 
each  other  in  the  woods.  The  privacy  which  the 
Empress  sought  has  been  somewhat  disturbed  in 
recent  years  by  the  increased  traffic  on  the  London 
road  which  cuts  her  estate  in  half.  The  incessant 
rush  of  motor-cars  may  partly  explain  that  restless 
desire  for  foreign  travel  which  now  withdraws  her 
during  long  periods  from  Hampshire.  Notice-boards 
at  many  points  warn  cyclists  not  to  venture  into  the 
tempting  woods  on  their  right  as  they  come  from 
London.  The  lodge-keeper,  a  burly  Briton,  has 
many  an  argument  with  the  inquisitive  strangers. 
"  They  won't  take  '  No  '  for  an  answer,"  he  mur- 
murs plaintively.  The  English  servants  at  Farn- 
borough refer  to  their  mistress  deferentially  as  "  Her 
Majesty."  Local  residents  of  all  degrees  testify  to 
her  popularity.  One  result  of  the  Imperial  lady's 
choice  of  a  home  has  been  to  transform  Farnborough 
into  a  Roman  Catholic  town.  So,  at  least,  it  seems 
to  the  visitor  as  he  walks  by  the  side  of  a  brown- 
frocked   monk   along    the   lane   that    leads   to   St. 

288 


St.   Michael's  Abbey 

Michael's  Abbey,  or  looks  from  the  high-road  at  the 
handsome  buildings  of  the  convent  school. 

Beeches,  fir-trees,  and  limes,  with  a  luxuriant 
undergrowth  of  shrubbery,  screen  the  Empress's 
house  from  curious  eyes,  but  the  motorist,  as  he  is 
swept  rapidly  through  the  estate,  sees  the  gently 
undulating  velvet-green  lawns,  the  glowing  flower- 
beds, the  fresh  foliage  of  a  hundred  trees. 

Nearly  opposite  the  chief  hotel  of  the  town  a 
brass  plate  indicates  the  way  to  the  memorial  chapel. 
A  railway  cutting  divides  the  Abbey  Hill  from  the 
grounds  belonging  to  the  house.  Visitors  ring  a 
bell,  and  a  Frenchwoman  leads  the  way  into  a  small 
room  where  postcards  and  photographs  are  on  sale, 
and  tickets,  at  one  shilling  each,  to  view  the  chapel 
and  crypt.  Young  monks,  with  sunburnt,  healthy 
faces,  take  the  tourist  in  charge.  They  are  extremely 
intelligent,  and  talk  frankly  without  prompting.  It 
is  evidently  their  purpose  to  make  the  stranger's 
visit  both  interesting  and  profitable.  Gloom,  sus- 
picion, and  bigotry  have  no  place  at  St.  Michael's 
Abbey.  The  attendant  monk  leads  the  way  first 
into  the  church,  where  he  points  out  the  beautiful 
marble  floor  in  front  of  the  high  altar,  adding  that 
the  marble  is  Italian,  and  that  Italian  workmen  had 
been  employed  to  lay  it  down.  Inside  the  altar- 
railing  on  the  left  are  two  chairs,  with  a  kneeling- 
stool  before  each.  Here  the  Empress  worshipped 
when  she  was  able  to  cross  the  private  bridge  over 
the  railway  and  attend  mass  at  the  Abbey  ;  but  now 
there  is  a  regular  Sunday  service  in  the  chapel  at  her 
house.  Daily  services  are  held  at  St.  Michael's  for 
all  who  care  to  attend.     The  masses  said  in  the  crypt 

u  289 


The   Lonely  Years 

are  private.  Above  the  altar  facing  the  royal  seat 
is  a  picture  by  Rubens,  brought  from  the  Tuileries, 
representing  the  visit  of  Mary  to  Elisabeth  before 
the  birth  of  St.  John  the  Baptist.  On  the  opposite 
side  is  a  companion  picture  by  Rubens,  showing  the 
presentation  of  the  infant  Saviour  in  the  Temple. 

A  sanded  walk  outside  the  church  leads  to  the 
crypt  entrance.  From  this  spot  there  is  a  magni- 
ficent view  over  the  wide-spreading  plain  of  Hamp- 
shire. Beyond  the  railway,  wrapped  and  bowered 
in  leafage,  the  gables  of  the  Empress's  house  may  be 
discerned.  Her  waking  eyes  turn  daily  towards  this 
spot,  to  her  the  most  sacred  of  earth's  shrines.  The 
monk  shows  on  the  left,  near  the  entrance,  the  side 
chapel  which  the  Empress  has  chosen  for  her  resting 
grave.  It  is  on  the  same  side  as  her  son's  burial- 
place.  On  the  Prince  Imperial's  tomb  lies  a  wreath 
of  white  immortelles  given  by  Queen  Victoria,  and  a 
bunch  of  purple  heather  recently  laid  there  by  Prin- 
cess Beatrice.  It  had  been  gathered  on  the  common 
by  the  Princess  when  she  was  the  guest  of  the  Em- 
press Eugenie. 

In  the  crypt  are  other  wreaths  in  the  French  style, 
the  offerings  of  loyal  Bonapartists.  Against  the 
wall  near  the  Prince's  tomb  is  a  cross  made  from 
the  grasses  among  which  his  dead  body  was  found 
in  South  Africa.  It  has  been  much  injured  by 
tourists,  who  pulled  out  pieces  of  grass  to  keep  as 
souvenirs.  On  the  Emperor's  tomb  is  also  a  wreath 
of  white  immortelles,  made  by  Queen  Victoria's 
hands.  Formerly  there  was  an  autograph  card 
attached,  but  this  has  been  snatched  away  by  some 
thief.     No  wonder  that  the  Empress,  who  was  at 

290 


Popularity  of  the  Empress 

first  accustomed  to  allow  strangers  to  visit  the  crypt 
without  payment,  has  been  obliged  to  make  a  charge 
for  admission.  It  is  a  proof  of  her  grateful  regard  for 
the  British  people,  among  whom  she  has  lived  for  a 
generation,  that  the  royal  tombs  are  by  her  command 
so  courteously  shown  to  the  public.  During  her 
long  residence  at  Farnborough  the  Empress  has  won 
popularity  with  every  class  of  the  community.  She 
has  often  been  seen  on  foot  in  the  little  town,  some- 
times on  her  way  to  visit  the  sick,  at  other  times  out 
on  a  shopping  expedition,  for  it  is  her  principle  to 
patronize  the  local  tradesmen  rather  than  London 
firms.  Nor  has  she  failed  to  interest  herself  in  the 
camp  at  Aldershot.  Soon  after  her  settlement  at 
Farnborough  Hill  she  went  with  Lieutenant-General 
Sir  Lintorn  Simmons  to  inspect  the  regimental  build- 
ings, and  on  several  occasions  she  drove  to  the 
railway  station  to  bid  farewell  to  regiments  that  were 
ordered  on  foreign  service.  Very  hearty  cheers  for 
the  Empress  have  been  heard  from  Tommy  Atkins 
at  Aldershot. 

Soon  after  her  return  from  South  Africa,  she 
visited  Netley  Hospital  with  Princess  Beatrice. 
Among  the  patients  were  soldiers  who  had  seen  the 
Prince  Imperial  in  Zululand.  The  nurses  took  her 
to  speak  to  them,  and  with  tear-dimmed  eyes  she 
listened  to  their  disinterested  tributes  of  praise. 
She  lingered  long  by  the  side  of  a  wounded  officer 
who  had  received  his  injuries  in  a  South  African  en- 
gagement. 

Sarcastic  comments  on  the  early  relations  of 
Queen  Victoria  to  the  Empress,  such  as  we  find,  for 
example,  in  the  Bernstorff  papers,  lose  their  sting 

2Ui 


The  Lonely  Years 

when  we  think  of  the  sisterly  kindness  which  our  late 
beloved  Queen  showed  to  the  widowed  lady.  Has 
there  been  anything  more  beautiful  in  modern 
history  than  this  womanly  friendship  ?  The  least 
coldness  from  Oueen  Victoria  would  have  made 
England  impossible  as  a  place  of  residence  for 
Eugenie.  But  the  Queen,  whose  example  as  wife 
and  mother  stands  "  colossal,  seen  of  every  land," 
proved  herself  also  the  perfect  friend  when  she  made 
life  beautiful  for  this  lonely  royal  sister. 

The  newspapers  of  1880  and  onwards  are  full  of 
such  announcements  as  this  :  "  The  Empress  Eugenie 
visits  the  Queen  to-day."  Behind  the  bald  fact  we 
can  discern  an  intimacy  of  communion,  the  calling 
of  heart  to  heart.  Cardinal  Newman's  motto  was 
true  of  them:  Cor  ad  cor  loquitur.  With  generous 
impulse  the  Queen  lent  her  own  homes  to  the  dis- 
horned Sovereign.  We  hear  of  her  staying  at 
Osborne  Cottage  and  at  Abergeldie  Castle  in  the 
Highlands.  Hostess  and  guests  took  long  drives  to- 
gether amid  the  beautiful  Deeside  scenery,  and  pene- 
trated far  beyond  the  beaten  track  into  the  moors 
and  mountain-passes  between  Braemar  and  Avie- 
more.  The  Empress  knows  every  Highland  stream, 
from  the  sparkling  Dee  near  Ballater  to  the  black, 
majestic  Spey,  shut  in  by  great  snow  mountains,  as 
we  see  it  in  late  October  from  the  bridge  of  Boat  of 
Garten.  In  the  wild  autumn  of  1883,  when  even  our 
hardy  Queen  ventured  only  on  short  drives  from 
Balmoral,  Eugenie  went  out  every  day  with  Princess 
Beatrice,  Princess  Christian,  and  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Albany  for  excursions  to  Linn  of  Dee 
and  through  the  glen  to  the  Earl  of  Fife's  shooting- 

292 


Revisiting  Paris 

lodge.  The  party  walked  up  the  Deny  valley  under 
hills  covered  with  newly  fallen  snow,  and  did  not 
return  to  Balmoral  till  late  in  the  evening.  Such  an 
open-air  life  did  more  to  re-establish  the  Empress's 
health  than  her  frequent  journeys  to  the  Riviera  and 
to  Austrian  watering-places,  or  even  the  treatment 
of  the  famous  specialist  for  rheumatism,  Dr.  Metzger, 
of  Amsterdam. 

In  May,  1882,  she  passed  through  Paris  in 
returning  from  Nice,  and  received  at  the  Duke 
of  Mouchy's  house  a  number  of  her  oldest  friends. 
Princess  Mathilde,  who  in  prosperous  days  had 
held  herself  rather  haughtily  aloof  from  the  Em- 
press, was  drawn  to  her  by  their  common  sorrows, 
and  sought  out  the  exiled  lady  on  her  visit  to 
Paris.  One  of  Eugenie's  rare  calls  was  at  the 
house  of  Edgar  Ney,  who  was  then  suffering  from 
the  disease  of  which  he  died  in  October,  1882.  It 
has  been  her  fate  to  witness  the  slow  extinguishing 
of  star  after  star  which  had  shone  in  the  sky  of  the 
Second  Empire.  Edgar  Ney,  the  fourth  son  of  the 
great  Marshal,  had  been  closely  attached  to  her 
Court  as  aide-de-camp  and  Master  of  the  Hunt. 

At  Ems,  Carlsbad,  and  other  German  and  Austrian 
watering-places  the  Empress  was  a  familiar  figure 
twenty  years  ago.  She  had  been  introduced  to  Ischl 
by  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  who  knew  every  village 
in  and  around  the  Austrian  Tyrol  and  Salzburg. 
When  the  Imperial  ladies  were  once  walking  among 
the  Salzburg  Alps  it  is  said  that  the  Empress  Eliza- 
beth told  her  guest  that  these  mountains  did  not 
greet  her  courteously  at  times,  though  she  loved  and 
knew  them  so  well.     She  was  sure,  however,  that 

293 


The  Lonely  Years 

they  would  welcome  Eugenie  politely.  She  then 
called  in  her  clear,  musical  voice,  "  Eugenie  !  "  and 
echo  repeated  over  and  over  again,  "  Genie,  Genie, 
Genie !  "  When  the  last  sound  had  died  away 
Elizabeth  said  laughingly,  "  Now  hear  what  the 
nymph  says  to  me."  In  a  loud,  harsh,  unfamiliar 
tone  she  called  her  own  Christian  name,  and  was 
answered  back  gruffly,  "  Bete,  bete,  bete  !  " 

Such  small,  happy  memories  are  not  absent  from 
the  Empress  Eugenie's  mind  as  she  wanders  from 
land  to  land.  In  each  the  renown  of  her  beauty  has 
been  spread,  and  the  loveliest  landscapes  in  Switzer- 
land, in  Italy,  in  France,  in  Germany,  in  Spain,  must 
recall  to  her  the  friends  and  lovers  of  far-off  years. 
Sometimes  on  her  wanderings  she  has  met  admirers 
of  a  period  earlier  than  that  of  her  first  dazzling  tri- 
umph at  Napoleon's  Court.  At  the  double  wedding 
of  Queen  Isabella  of  Spain  to  Don  Francisco  d'Assisi 
and  of  the  Infanta  Louise  to  the  Duke  of  Mont- 
pensier,  son  of  Louis  Philippe,  the  French  Princes 
were  the  guests  of  the  Court  of  Spain  (10  October, 
1846).  The  Duke  of  Aumale  was  much  in  the  com- 
pany of  the  lovely  Eugenie,  and  visited  with  her  the 
picture-galleries  and  museums  of  Madrid.  Long 
after  the  downfall  of  the  Second  Empire  the  yachts 
of  the  Duke  and  of  the  ex-Empress  were  anchored 
side  by  side  in  the  Bay  of  Naples.  The  Duke,  who 
had  not  met  Eugenie  during  all  these  years,  asked  if 
he  might  come  on  board.  They  talked  of  the  mar- 
riage festivities  of  half  a  century  ago.  "  What  a 
lovely  young  girl  your  Majesty  was  !  "  said  the  Duke. 
"  And  you,  sir,  what  a  gallant  cavalier  !  " 

There  is  one  holiday  home  of  the  past  to  which 

294 


Memories  of  Travel 

the  ex-Empress  never  returned.  A  writer  of  1883 
thus  describes  the  Villa  Eugenie  at  Biarritz  :  "It 
has  been  called  the  Villa  Eugenie,  the  Palais  Biarritz, 
but  its  right  name  now  surely  is  the  Villa  Ichabod. 
There  it  stands,  a  memorial  of  past  greatness,  a  dis- 
mal suggestion  of  what  has  been,  but  will  recur  no 
more.  .  .  .  On  its  landward  front  there  still  remain 
the  words  '  Villa  Eugenie  '  ;  a  huge  white-faced 
clock  is  surmounted  by  the  Imperial  crown  and  sup- 
ported by  the  Imperial  eagles.  The  letters  N  and  E 
intertwined  appear  in  the  arabesque  work  over  the 
windows.  That  is  all  that  remains  to  tell  of  the 
glorious  days  of  five-and-twenty  years  ago.  All  the 
jalousies  are  closed,  save  in  the  basement,  where  the 
windows  are  freely  broken.  On  one  of  the  walls  is 
the  remnant  of  a  bill,  prating  of  '  Feux  d' Artifice  and 
Fetes  de  Nuit.'  This  was  in  late  years,  when  it  was 
attempted  to  open  the  place  as  a  casino,  an  attempt 
which  failed  dismally.  On  the  sea-front  are  statues 
of  a  lion  and  lioness,  roaring,  open-mouthed,  statues 
of  negro  slaves,  the  gilt  of  their  armlets  and  neck- 
laces very  much  tarnished,  bearing  aloft  torches,  the 
tops  of  which  are  now  wrapped  in  tarpaulin.  In  the 
far  corner  there  is  a  mangy  restaurant,  to  which  no 
one  goes.  But  there,  facing  the  broad  expanse  of 
the  bay,  is  the  terrace  in  which  she  used  to  walk, 
and  the  little  private  gate  on  to  the  sands  through 
which  she  went  to  bathe." 

In  1886-7  the  Empress  wintered  in  Italy  and  spent 
some  months  in  the  Villa  Delahaute,  near  Naples. 
In  1890  she  saw  the  sacred  play  at  Ober-Ammergau. 
The  social  events  which  interested  her  most  in  these 
years  were  the  marriage  of  Princess  Beatrice  (1885) 

295 


The  Lonely  Years 

and  of  Princess  Letitia  Bonaparte  (1888).  The  Em- 
press did  not  accept  an  invitation  to  either,  though 
the  brides  were  very  dear  to  her.  The  rich  lace  of 
a  violet  design  which  had  been  presented  by  the 
town  of  Liege  was  given  by  her  in  1888  to  Letitia 
Bonaparte,  on  her  wedding  to  the  Duke  of  Aosta. 
In  the  letter  which  accompanied  the  gift  the  ex- 
Empress  said  she  had  worn  it  in  the  happiest  and 
proudest  hour  of  her  life,  adding  that  she  had  hoped 
to  give  it  to  her  son's  bride,  but  Providence  had 
willed  it  otherwise.  The  necklace  and  tiara  of 
diamonds  and  emeralds  which  once  belonged  to 
Queen  Hortense  were  also  given  by  the  Empress  to 
Princess  Letitia.  Yet  another  present  was  a  fan 
painted  by  the  Prince  Imperial. 

In  1890  the  Empress  lost  one  of  her  oldest  and 
dearest  English  friends,  the  Marchioness  of  Ely. 
Their  intimacy  dated  from  Eugenie's  girlhood,  and 
Lady  Ely  had  chaperoned  her  during  more  than  one 
London  season.  Louis  Napoleon  confided  to  this 
mutual  friend  the  story  of  his  wooing,  and  with  the 
chief  events  of  the  Empress's  life  Lady  Ely  was 
associated.  After  the  fall  of  the  Second  Empire  she 
was  one  of  the  first  to  welcome  the  exile  at  Chisle- 
hurst,  and  her  consolation,  as  we  have  seen,  was  not 
lacking  after  the  calamity  of  1879.  This  charming 
lady  was  beloved  alike  by  Queen  Victoria  and  the 
Empress.  Among  the  friends  who  are  now  often 
with  the  Empress  Eugenie  are  the  Duchess  of  Mouchy, 
the  Princess  de  la  Moskowa,  Count  Primoli,  Count 
Clary,  and  Count  Urbain  Chevreau.  Nor  must  we 
forget  her  friend  and  secretary,  M.  Pietri,  and 
Mademoiselle  d'Alonville,  the  lady  who  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  late  Madame  Lebreton. 

296 


Memories  of  Travel 

A  tender,  sorrowful  instinct  draws  the  Empress 
towards  the  homes  of  her  vanished  splendour.  In 
the  early  eighties,  accompanied  by  Madame  Le- 
breton,  she  visited  Compiegne  and  Pierrefonds. 
"  Hardly  any  one,"  says  a  writer  of  the  time,  "  could 
have  recognized  the  once  brilliant  Eugenie  in  this 
plainly  dressed,  elderly  lady,  who  crept  like  a  ghost 
through  streets  named  after  the  victories  of  the 
Italian  war."  The  feudal  glories  of  ancient  Pierre- 
fonds were  not  more  utterly  departed  than  her 
sovereignty.  She  has  been  in  Paris  often,  but  al- 
ways in  the  strictest  privacy.  Sometimes  she  has 
walked  in  quiet  avenues  of  the  Bois  de  Boulogne, 
where  in  the  happy  days  of  their  early  wedded  life 
the  people  of  Paris  saw  her  and  the  Emperor  wander- 
ing hand  in  hand.  More  often  her  steps  have  turned 
towards  the  Tuileries  gardens — overshadowed,  as  for 
her  they  ever  must  be,  by  the  mighty  palace  whose 
very  ruins  have  now  disappeared  from  earth.  The 
story  is  told  that  on  a  spring  morning  the  ex-Empress 
ventured  to  pick  a  flower  from  the  ornamental  par- 
terres. Even  as  she  bent  and  gathered  the  little 
blossom  a  rough  voice  sounded  in  her  ears.  One  of 
the  keepers  of  the  gardens,  a  Crimean  veteran,  white- 
bearded,  and  wearing  on  his  breast  the  medal  of  the 
war  of  1855,  said  sharply  to  her,  "  It  is  forbidden  to 
pick  flowers  here." 

Flowers  which  no  rude  hand  can  snatch  away  from 
her  grow  for  Eugenie  in  Paris.  The  happiest  dreams 
of  girlhood  must  return  as  she  thinks  of  her  mother's 
modest  house,  where  she  met  Merimee  and  Stendhal, 
and  was  borne  on  their  magic  carpet  into  the  world 
of  fairyland.     "  When  you  grow  up,"  Stendhal  used 

297 


The  Lonely  Years 

to  say  to  the  fair-haired  child,  "  you  will  marry  the 
Marquis  of  Santa-Cruz,  and  you  will  forget  me,  and 
I  shall  not  trouble  any  more  about  you."  Then  the 
wonder  of  it,  the  overwhelming  surprise,  when  she, 
the  little  Spanish  girl,  was  wedded  in  Notre  Dame 
to  one  who  might  command  the  homage  of  a  legen- 
dary Marquis  Santa-Cruz  !  There  must  be  days 
for  Eugenie,  even  now,  in  Paris,  when  every  window 
seems  aflame  with  colour,  flags  and  flowers  mingling 
in  her  honour  their  richest  hues ;  days  when  every 
fountain  in  the  Champs  Elysees  sings  the  praises  of 
the  Queen  of  Love  and  Beauty,  and  even  the  old 
river  has  a  caressing  tone.  The  flowers  which  have 
bloomed  longest,  which  no  winter's  frost  or  summer's 
heat  can  wither,  are  the  violets  of  charity  planted 
by  her  hands  in  hospital  gardens.  While  these  live 
some  fragrance  from  the  Second  Empire  will  linger 
to  bless  the  world. 

A  gipsy  woman  had  foretold  to  Eugenie  in  child- 
hood that  her  happiness  would  bloom  with  the 
violets,  the  emblems  of  the  Bonapartes.  Among  the 
legends  which  haunt  her  girlhood  another  is  that  of 
the  aged  nun  who  came  to  her  when  she  was  tempted, 
for  a  brief  moment,  to  enter  the  religious  life, 
and  after  looking  at  her  earnestly,  exclaimed,  "  My 
daughter  !  do  not  seek  for  rest  within  these  walls ; 
you  are  called  to  adorn  a  throne  !  "  If  there  is  any 
truth  in  this  Spanish  story,  the  nun  must  have  been 
a  prophetess  like  the  gipsy  queen  in  Browning's 
"  Flight  of  the  Duchess."  The  life  to  which  she 
called  the  young  Countess  of  Teba  was  one  of  gilded 
servitude,  but  beyond  it  lay  the  freedom  of  a  long 
and  beautiful  old  age.     There  could  be  no  greater 

29s 


The  Empress  To-day 

mistake  than  to  picture  the  Empress  as  a  discon- 
tented, miserable  woman  whose  time  is  consumed  in 
vain  regrets.  "  She  is  without  a  ray  of  light  to  re- 
lieve the  tedium  of  life,"  says  one  writer,  "  and  is 
forced  by  a  constant  morbid  power  to  dwell  un- 
ceasingly but  on  two  thoughts  :  the  loss  of  her  son 
and  the  last  hours  of  her  husband."  Deeply  as  she 
has  mourned,  she  has  mourned  in  the  sunlight,  and 
has  chosen  her  own  last  resting-place  where  the  sun- 
beams fall.  Her  clear  intelligence  remains  un- 
dimmed,  her  sympathy  for  human  joys  and  sorrows 
leaves  few  intervals  for  melancholy  brooding.  Prob- 
ably the  severest  personal  sorrow  of  her  later  years 
has  been  the  death  of  Queen  Victoria.  As  she  read 
how  the  historic  funeral  procession  passed  through 
the  streets  of  London  her  heart  must  have  echoed 
those  words  which  the  Due  de  Broglie  prefixed  to 
the  memoirs  of  his  long  life  :  "  Ecce  enim  breves  anni 
transeunt  et  semitam  per  quant  non  revertar  ambulo." 
But  she  knows  the  joys  as  well  as  the  sorrows  of 
that  experience  which  the  gipsy  queen  foreshadowed 
to  the  Duchess  in  Browning's  poem  : — 

So,  at  the  last  shall  come  old  age, 
Decrepit  as  befits  that  stage ; 
How  else  wouldst  thou  retire  apart, 
With  the  hoarded  memories  of  thy  heart, 
And  gather  all,  to  the  very  least, 
Of  the  fragments  of  life's  earlier  feast, 
Let  fall  through  eagerness  to  find 
The  crowning  dainties  yet  behind  ? 

Ponder  on  the  entire  past, 
Laid  together  thus  at  last, 

^99 


The  Lonely  Years 

When  the  twilight  helps  to  fuse 

The  first  fresh  with  the  faded  hues 

And  the  outline  of  the  whole, 

As  round  eve's  shades  their  frame  work  roll, 

Grandly  fronts  for  once  thy  soul ! 

The  earthly  promise  of  that  psalm  which  com- 
forted the  Empress  Eugenie  in  her  hour  of  desolation 
has  been  fulfilled  for  her  in  the  long  after  years  : 
"  Surely  goodness  and  mercy  shall  follow  me  all  the 
days  of  my  life,  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord  for  ever." 


THE    END 


300 


William  Kirkpatrick  (died  1686) 

of  Kirkmichael. 

Junior  line  of  the  Closeburn  Kirkpatricks. 


Robert  Kirkpatrick. 
Beheaded  in  1747  for  following  Prince  Charlie. 


William  Kirkpatrick  (1736-87). 
Had  nineteen  children. 


William  Kirkpatrick  (1764-1837). 
He  emigrated  to  Spain. 
Married  a  daughter  of  the  Baron  de  Grivegn^e. 


Marie  Manielita  Elizabeth  Kirkpatrick. 
Married  the  Count  de  Montijo. 


Maria  =  8th  Duke  of 


1825-60. 


Berwick  and 
Alba,  1821-81. 


9th  Duke 

of  Berwick, 

of  Alba,  and 

of  Liria. 
Died  in  New 
York,  1901. 


Dul 


10th  Duke 

of  Berwick. 

Descended  from 

James  II,  of 
Great  Britain. 


1853 
EUGENIE  =  Napoleon  III. 


Born  1826. 


1808-73. 


NAPOLEON  EUGENE 

LOUIS  BONAPARTE. 

1856-79. 

Prince  Imperial  ot  France. 

Killed  in  Zululand. 


THK   SCOTS   ANCKSTKY    OF   THE    EMPRESS    EUGENIE 


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INDEX 


Abdul  Aziz,  the  Sultan  :  in 
Paris,  1 70  ;  receives  the  Em- 
press in  Constantinople,  185 

Aguado,  Countess,  274 

Alba,  the  Duchess  of,  sister  of 
the  Empress :  marries  the 
Duke  of  Alba,  29  ;  her  last  ill- 
ness and  death,  144-6  ;  the 
Empress's  sorrow  for  her  sis- 
ter, 145 

Alcanizes,  Marquis  of,  29 

Alexander  II,  the  Czar,  41,  166, 
167 

Algeria,  visit  of  the  Empress  to, 
144 

Anthony  of  Hohenzollern, Prince, 
200 

Antoinette,  Marie,  and  the  Em- 
press Eugenie,  67,  146,  229 

Arenenberg,  the  chateau  of,  268 

Arthur,  Prince  (Duke  of  Con- 
naught),  77 

Bassano,  Duke  of,  101,  106,  261, 

274 
Bassano,  Marquis  of,  281 
Bazaine,  Marshal,  210,  240,  246 
Beatrice,  Princess,  277,  290,  292 
Bedoyere,  Vicomte  Jean   de  la, 

140 
Benedetti,  le  Comte,  204 
Berezowski,  attempts  to  murder 

the  Czar,  167 
Bernstorff,  Count  von,  246-8 
Bernstorff,    Countess,    describes 

the  Imperial  visit  to  England 

in  April,  1855,  78-80 


Berryer,  M.,  170 

Beyle,  Henri  (Stendhal),  20,  21 

Biarritz,  the  Court  at,  108 

Bignet,  139 

Bismarck,  Prince :  admiration 
for  the  Empress,  54  ;  on  the 
home  life  of  the  Imperial  pair, 
148  ;  in  Paris  for  the  Ex- 
hibition of  1867,  166  ;  de- 
scribes his  interview  with  the 
Emperor  after  Sedan,  217  ; 
wishes  to  treat  with  the  Em- 
press, 239;  his  relations  with 
Regnier,  Jules  Favre,  and 
Bazaine,  241-5 

Bonaparte,  Jerome  (ex-King  of 
Westphalia)  :  his  marriage 
to  Elizabeth  Patterson,  7,  8  ; 
and  the  wedding  of  Napoleon 
III,  49,  64 

Bonnechose,  the  Cardinal  de, 
57,  113,  267,  268,  269,  273, 
276 

Bourbaki,  General,  242-4 

Bourgoing,  Baron  Pierre  de, 
140 

Boyer,  General,  246-8 

Brandon,  Madame,  84 

Bruat,  L'Amirale,  84,  87 

Burgoyne,  Sir  John,  234-7 

Burgoyne,  Lady,  234-7 

Cambridge,  Duke  of,  272 
Cambridge,  Princess  Mary  of,  34 
Camden       Place,       Chislehurst, 

260-1 
Canrobert,  Marshal,  242-3 


30^ 


Ind 


ex 


Cardigan,  Lord,  75 

Carola,  Princess  (Queen  of 
^  Saxony),  34 

Castelfidardo,  battle  of,  145-6 

Castiglione,  Countess :  her 
beauty,  128  ;  at  a  state  ball, 
128;  as  a  hermit,  129;  her 
solitary  old  age,  129  ;  her 
last  days,  130  ;  her  win,  130  ; 
her  burial-piace,  131 

Cavour,  Count,  1 1 3 

Chamonix,  the  Empress  at,  143 

Chandor,  Count,  13 1-3 

Chelmsford,  Lord,  272 

Cherbourg,  the  meeting  at,  1 13-15 

Chislehurst,  285 

Cisneros,  Enrique  de,  66 

Clary,  Count,  255,  261 

Clary,  Countess,  274 

Clarendon,  Lord,  71 

Clermont,  the  Empress  at,  150-1 

Clotilde,  Princess,  121,  132 

Cloud,  Saint,  Palace  of,  82,  96 

Compiegne,  hunting  parties  in 
1852,  37  ;  the  town,  90  ;  the 
palace,  91-2  ;  receptions  at, 
173-4,  297 

Conneau,  Dr.,  253-5,  261 

Conneau,  Louis,  140,  270,  273 

Consort,  the  Prince  :  72,  83  ;  at 
Cherbourg,  11 4- 15 

Cornu,  Madame,  199 

Corvisart,  Baron,  140,  253,  261, 
274 

Cousin,  Victor,  107 

Crane,  Dr.,  233 

Crimean  War,  the,  69-89 

Darboy,   Archbishop,    105,    204, 

228,  259 
David,  M.,  215 
Deguerry,  the  Abbe,  105,  181 
Douay,  Abel,  212 
Doucet,  Camille,  85 
Drouyn  de  Lhuys,  M.,  50 
Dupanloup,  Bishop,  146 


Elizabeth  of  Austria,  the  Em- 
press, 293 
Ely,  Marchioness  of,  274,  296 
Espinasse,  M.  Jules,  140 
Essling,    Princess   d',    106,    128, 

148,  228 
Eugenie,  the  Empress  : 

Her  Girlhood  :  birth  at 
Granada,  15  ;  leaves  Spain 
with  her  mother,  19  ;  life  in 
Paris,  20  ;  the  stories  of  Stend- 
hal, 21  ;  her  education,  22  ; 
Merimee  as  teacher,  24  ;  death 
of  her  father,  25  ;  at  the  Con- 
vent of  the  Sacred  Heart, 
Paris,  25  ;  life  at  Madrid  and 
Carabanchel,  26  ;  country- 
house  gaieties,  27  ;  marriage 
of  her  sister,  29  ;  admired  in 
Madrid  society,  29  ;  at  a  bull- 
fight, 29-30  ;  General  Nar- 
vaez,  30;  Lacordaire,  31  ; 
foreign  travel,  32 

Her  Marriage  :  first  meet- 
ings with  Napoleon,  35  ;  letter 
of  1848,  36;  guest  of  Napo- 
leon III  at  Compiegne,  ^7  ; 
her  grace  and  beauty,  37  ; 
story  of  the  diamond  clover- 
leaf,  37  ;  the  Emperor  in 
love,  37  ;  first  rumours  of 
the  engagement,  38  ;  jeal- 
ousies, 40  ;  crisis  of  her  love- 
story,  41  ;  Napoleon  offers 
marriage,  41  ;  his  warning,  42  ; 
the  ball  at  the  Tuileries,  43  ; 
Paris  gossip  on  the  engage- 
ment, 44-5  ;  the  announce- 
ment in  the  Times,  46;  "The 
Spanish  Ladye's  Love,"  47  ; 
refuses  the  gift  of  the  City  of 
Paris,  51  ;  letter  to  the  pre- 
fect, 5 1  ;  her  beauty,  5  3  ;  her 
study  of  Fourier,  54 ;  the 
civil  wedding,  59  ;  the  wed- 
ding  in   Notre   Dame,   60-5  ; 


304 


Index 


the  honeymoon,  67  ;    interest 
in  Marie  Antoinette,  67 

Her  Early  Married  Life  : 
visit  to  England,  72  ;  Queen 
Victoria's  welcome,  74-6  ;  fes- 
tivities in  England,  76-7  ;  re- 
ceives Queen  Victoria  in  Paris, 
81  ;  the  ball  at  Saint  Cloud, 
81-2  ;  birth  of  the  Prince  Im- 
perial, 83  ;  gifts  to  mother 
and  son,  87  ;  the  christening 
at  Notre  Dame,  87-8  ;  the 
Golden  Rose,  88-9  j  parties 
at  Compiegne,  94-6  ;  at  Pierre- 
fonds,  93  ;  at  Fontainebleau, 
96  ;  at  Rambouillet,  97  ;  her 
interest  in  spiritualism,  97- 
101  ;  the  great  balls,  104  ; 
masked  dances,  105  ;  the 
"  Mondays,"  105  ;  State  din- 
ners, 106  ;  her  serious  read- 
ing, 107  ;  life  at  Biarritz, 
108-9  ;  Orsini's  crime,  109-11; 
meets  Queen  Victoria  at  Cher- 
bourg, 1 1 2-1 6;  visit  to  Brit- 
tany, 1 15-19;  meets  Louis 
Veuillot,   119 

From  her  First  Regency 
(1859)  to  the  Second  Regency 
(1865)  :  the  war  in  Italy,  12 1; 
taking  leave  of  the  troops, 
123  ;  her  life  as  Regent,  124- 
5  ;  Magenta  and  Solferino, 
125  ;  thanksgiving  at  Notre 
Dame,  125  ;  Peace  of  Villa- 
franca,  126  ;  her  growing  in- 
terest in  politics,  127  ;  ladies 
of  her  court,  128-36  ;  her  in- 
dulgence for  Pepa,  138  ;  her 
provincial  progresses,  141  ;  the 
journey  to  Nice  and  Savoy, 
142  ;  at  Chamonix,  143  ;  in 
Algeria,  144  ;  death  of  her 
sister,  the  Duchess  of  Alba, 
145  ;  letter  to  Countess  Tas- 
chcr  de  la  Pagcric,  145  ;  grief 


for  the  defeat  of  Castelfidardo, 

145  ;    and  Bishop  Dupanloup, 

146  ;  her  Italian  policy,  147  ; 
the  visit  to  Scotland,  147-9; 
lunches  at  Windsor,  1 50  ;  the 
journey  to  Auvergne,  150; 
her  religious  sympathies,  153  ; 
an  argument  with  Merimee, 
154  ;  the  Mexican  War,  156  ; 
her  visit  to  Spain,  157  ;  hos- 
tility of  Prince  Napoleon,  159  ; 
her  visit  to  Schwalbach,  160; 
her  second  Regency,  161 

Later  Years  of  the  Reign, 
1865-70:  rumours  of  a  visit 
to  Rome,  161  ;  her  personal 
courage,  161  ;  with  the  cho- 
lera patients  at  Amiens,  16 1-3; 
the  Exhibition  of  1867,  164-9  ; 
visits  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press of  Austria  at  Salzburg, 
1 7 1-2  ;  her  last  parties  at 
Compiegne,  173-4  ;  political 
interests,  175-6  ;  relations  with 
the  Liberals,  177  ;  with  M. 
Rouher,  177  ;  her  home- 
life,  179-80  ;  her  leadership 
of  the  world  of  fashion,  181  ; 
at  the  opening  of  the  Suez 
Canal,  185-7  ;  letter  to  her 
husband,   187  ;    her  charities, 

1 89-93  J  on  tne  eve  of  the 
war,  194-5  ;  her  action  before 
the  war,  201-4  ;  her  third 
Regency,  204  ;  the  defects  of 
Worth  and  Forbach,  206  ;  her 
conduct  in  the  crisis,  208  ;  her 
appeal  to  the  people,  209  ;  pro- 
posed return  of  the  Emperor, 
210-12  ;  her  last  official  re- 
ception, 213  ;  her  care  for  the 
wounded,  214;  hears  the 
news  of  Sedan,  217  ;  the  last 
night  at  the  Tuilcries,  217-18  ; 
preparations  for  flight,  221  ; 
the  morning  of  September  4, 


305 


Index 


her  last  Cabinet  Council,  226  ; 
the  question  of  abdication, 
226  ;  leaves  the  Tuileries, 
229 ;       flight      to      England, 

233-8 

The    Years    of   Exile  :     de- 
clines  to   cede   French   terri- 
tory,  240  ;    refuses  the  over- 
tures   of    Regnier,    241  ;     re- 
ceives   General    Bourbaki    at 
Chislehurst,  244  ;  her  grief  for 
the    army    and    the    country, 
244  ;   her  meeting  with  Count 
von     Bernstorff,     247  ;      wel- 
comes her  husband  at  Dover, 
250  ;    journey  to  Spain,  250  ; 
attends   the   thanksgiving   at 
St.  Paul's  in  1872,  251  ;    life 
at  Chislehurst,  252,  261  ;  death 
of    the    Emperor,    254  ;     de- 
votion to  her  son,  262  ;    cele- 
brates his  coming  of  age,  264, 
265  ;  received  by  Pius  IX,  268  ; 
at    Arenenberg,    268  ;    corre- 
spondence   with    Cardinal  de 
%   Bonnechose,    269,    272  j     the 
question  of  her  son's  marriage, 
269  ;     his    visit   to    Zululand, 
270 ;     news    of    the    Prince's 
death,   274  ;    deep  sorrow  of 
the  Empress,  274-5  ;    funeral 
of  the  Prince,  275-9  ;    visits 
South  Africa,  281  ;    at  Cape- 
town, 282  ;    at  Durban,  282  ; 
at   the   Prince's   grave,    283  ; 
settlement     at     Farnborough 
Hill,  284 ;  the  home  at  Farn- 
borough,   285-7  ;     her   popu- 
larity    in     Hampshire,     291  ; 
visits  to  Queen  Victoria,  292  ; 
in   the     Highlands,    292  ;    in 
Paris,  293 ;  her  travels,  294,  295 
Evans,  Dr.,  233-7,  259,  260 
Exhibition,  Industrial,  of  1855, 

80 
Exhibition  of  1867,  164-9 


Farnborough  Hill,  284-7 

Favre,  Jules,  221,  240 

Ferdinand  VII  of  Spain,  13 

Felix,  M.,  74 

Filon,  M.,  261 

Flaubert,  Gustave,  198 

Fleury,  General  Count :  on  the 
Imperial  wedding,  62  ;  ad- 
vises the  Emperor  about  his 
marriage,  66  ;  visits  London 
with  their  Majesties  in  1855, 
74  ;  on  the  Prince  Imperial 
as  a  child,  85  ;  with  their 
Majesties  in  Brittany,  117  ; 
arranges  the  Empress's  jour- 
neys, 141  ;  with  the  Empress 
in  Clermont  Hospital,  151  ; 
with  the  Emperor  in  exile, 
250 

Fleury,  Countess,  136 

Fleury,  Count  Maurice,  140 

Fleury,  Vicomte  Adrien,  140 

Flowers,  Miss,  25 

Fontainebleau,  parties  at,  2>7>  9& 

Forbach,  battle  of,  206 

Fould,    M.,    performs   the    civil 
wedding  of  Napoleon  III  and 
the  Countess  of  Teba,  59 
Francis     Joseph,     Emperor     of 
Austria,  57,  126,  170-2  ;  visits 
Paris,  172  ;   at  the  opening  of 
the  Suez  Canal,  186 
Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  272,  281 
Frossard,  General,  207 

Gallegos,  Dona  Antonia  de,  wife 
of  Baron  do  Grivegnee,  great- 
grandmother  of  the  Empress, 
10 

Gallifet,  the  Marquise  de,  1 36 

Gambetta,   196 

Gautier,  Theophile,  85 

Girardin,  Emile  de,  161,  199,  219 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  164 

Gramont,  the  Due  de,  202-4 

Granada,  17 


306 


Index 


Granville,  Earl,  ioo,  103 
Graviere,  Admiral  Jurien  de  la, 

225 
Grivegnee,  Henri,  Baron  de,  10 
Gull,  Sir  William,  253 
Guzman,  Alonzo  de,  1 1 

Hamilton,  Duchess  of  (Princess 

Marie  of  Baden),  150 
Haussmann,  Baron,  52,  88,  168 
Home,  Douglas,  97-101 

Irving,     Washington  :      on    the 
Empress's  grandfather,  9  ;   on 
her  father,  Count  Teba,  9 
Isabella,  Queen  of  Spain,  28,  158 
Isly,  la  Duchesse  d',  136 

Juarez,  156 

Kirkpatricks  of  Closeburn,  the, 

4,  5,  42 
Kirkpatrick,  Sir  Charles  Sharpe, 

6 
Kirkpatrick,  Sir  James,  6 
Kirkpatrick,  Sir  Roger,  4 
Kirkpatrick,    Sir    Thomas :     of- 
fered a  peerage,   5  ;    protects 
the  Covenanters,  5,  6 
Kirkpatrick,     William,     grand- 
father of  the  Empress  :   settles 
at  Malaga,   9  ;    his  wineshop 
and     club,     9  ;      Washington 
Irving  on,  9  ;  education  of  his 
daughters,  12 

Labordc,  Count  Alexandre  de, 
20 

Lacordairc,  Pure  :  at  Saint  Roch, 
31,  32  ;  on  the  Crimean  War, 
71  ;  writes  to  Madame  Swct- 
chinc  on  table-turning,  98 

Lebceuf,  Marshal,  202,  204,  207, 
208 

Lcbreton,  Madame,  229,  233^ 
243,  261,  296 


Leopold  of  Hohenzollern,  Prince, 
199 

Leroy,  M.,  182 

Lesseps,  Ferdinand  de  :  his  re- 
lationship to  the  Empress,  10  ; 
consulted  before  her  engage- 
ment, 46  ;  at  the  opening  of 
the  Suez  Canal,  186  ;  the  Em- 
press gives  him  a  silver  cup, 
187  ;  in  the  crisis  of  1870, 
219-20,  228 

Lesseps,  Madame  Mathieu  de, 
11,  12 

Longman,  Mr.,  284 

Macmahon,  Marshal  de,  266 

Magenta,  battle  of,  125 

Malakoff,  Duke  of,  112 

Malmesbury,  Lord,  72,  95 

Manning,  Cardinal,  278 

Mathilde,  Princess  :  opposition 
to  Napoleon's  marriage  with 
the  Countess  of  Teba,  41  ;  at 
the  civil  wedding,  59  ;  at 
Compiugne,  96  ;  walks  out  of 
church,  152  ;  friendship  for 
the  Empress  in  later  years,  293 

Maximilian,  the  Emperor  :  169  ; 
his  execution,  170 

Mellinet,  General,  227,  228 

Mcrimee,  Prosper  :  his  letters  to 
the  Countess  of  Montijo,  14  ; 
his  first  visit  to  Spain,  14  ; 
hospitality  of  Eugenie's  par- 
ents, 15  ;  M.  Filon  on  Mcri- 
mee, 16  ;  Merimeein  England, 
23  ;  his  kindness  to  the  Em- 
press in  her  childhood,  22  ; 
Victor  Cousin  on  Mcrimee,  24  ; 
letter  to  Dr.  V6ron,  24  ;  buys 
dresses  for  his  girl  friends,  27  ; 
at  Carabanchcl,  27  ;  on  the 
Imperial  marriage,  64  ;  at 
Compicgne,  94  ;  at  Biarritz, 
108  ;  on  the  war  in  Italy, 
1 2 1-3,  126  ;   on  tho  Empress's 


3°7 


Index 


visit  to  Scotland,  147  ;  an 
argument  at  Biarritz,  154; 
a  letter  from  Compiegne,  155; 
letters  from,  161,  165,  174  ; 
appeals  to  M.  Thiers  on  behalf 
of  the  Empress,  215  ;  his 
death,  249 

Metternich,  Prince  Richard  de  : 
at  Compiegne, 95, 173-4,228-9; 
sympathizes  with  the  Italian 
policy  of  the  Empress,  147 

Metternich,  Princess  Pauline  de  : 
131  ;  her  character,  131  ;  her 
frankness  of  speech,  132  ;  her 
admiration  for  Wagner,  132  ; 
her  friendship  for  the  Empress, 
133;  her  career  in  Paris,  134;  her 
life  in  Vienna,  135  ;  her  great 
popularity,  135  ;  at  Com- 
piegne, 174  ;  her  patronage  of 
Worth,  183 

Michael,  Church  of  St.,  Farn- 
borough, 287, 288 

Montijo,  Eugenio,  Count  of, 
uncle  of  the  Empress :  11; 
a  Spanish  Mirabeau,  11  ;  dis- 
pleased with  his  brother's 
marriage,  13  ;  his  death,  18 

Montijo,  the  Countess  of  (Maria 
Manuela  Kirkpatrick),  mother 
of  the  Empress  :  marries  the 
Count  of  Teba,  13  ;  their 
meeting  in  Paris,  12  ;  her 
character,  12  ;  George  Tick- 
nor  on,  13,  14  ;  her  friendship 
for  Merimee,  14,  15  ;  escapes 
from  Madrid,  19  ;  Marechal 
de  Castellane  on,  19  ;  death  of 
her  husband,  25  ;  at  the 
Spanish  Court,  26 ;  Washing- 
ton Irving  on,  26  ;  Lady  of 
honour  to  Isabella  II,  28  ; 
helps  Merimee  in  his  work,  28  ; 
foreign  travel  with  her  daugh- 
ter, 32  ;  letter  on  the  Imperial 
marriage,    51  ;     her    position 


after  the  marriage,  82  ;  with 
her  daughter  in  March,  1856, 
83  ;  pride  in  her  daughter,  1 59  ; 
telegram  from  the  Empress 
announcing  the  disaster  of 
Sedan,  223 

Mocquart,  M.,  152 

Morny,  le  Due  de,  155 

Mouchy,  Duchess  of  (Princess 
Anna  Murat),  127-8,  261,  274 

Napoleon  III :  first  rumours  of 
his  marriage,  32  ;  and  Dona 
Maria  of  Portugal,  33 ;  and 
Princess  Mathilde,  33  ;  first 
meetings  with  Eugenie  de 
Montijo,  35  ;  the  engagement, 
41  ;  a  ball  at  the  Tuileries,  43  ; 
the  public  announcement  of 
his  wedding,  48  ;  his  speech  of 
22  January,  1853,  48  ;  his 
article  in  Le  Dix  D/cembre,  54  ; 
his  religious  feeling,  56  ;  ne- 
gotiations with  Pius  IX,  57  ; 
his  marriage,  58-65  ;  splen- 
dour of  his  Court,  68 ;  wishes 
to  visit  the  Crimea,  71  ;  visit 
to  England,  72  ;  the  reception 
in  London,  "j^  ;  at  the  Guild- 
hall banquet,  77  ;  at  Windsor, 
74  ;  made  a  Knight  of  the 
Garter,  75  ;  Queen  Victoria's 
feeling  towards  him,  76 ;  leaves 
England,  yj  ;  Pionori  at- 
tempts his  life,  80  ;  receives 
the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert 
in  Paris,  81  ;  the  ball  at  Saint 
Cloud,  81-2  ;  joy  at  the  birth 
of  his  son,  83  ;  replies  to  con- 
gratulations, 86  ;  his  super- 
stition, 99  ;  interest  in  Doug- 
glas  Home,  100  ;  consults  the 
prophet  Edmond,  101-2  ;  splen- 
dour of  his  Court,  102 ;  Or- 
sini's  crime,  109-11  ;  meets 
the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert 


308 


Index 


at  Cherbourg,  115;  visits 
Brittany  with  the  Empress, 
1 1 6-1 9;  first  meeting  with 
Louis  Veuillot,  119;  strained 
relations  with  Austria,  121  ; 
the  Italian  War,  122  ;  leaves 
for  Italy,  123  ;  Magenta  and 
Solferino,  125  ;  an  incon- 
clusive peace,  125  ;  disap- 
pointment of  Victor  Emman- 
uel, 126  ;  journey  to  Algeria 
with  the  Empress,  144  ;  the 
Exhibition  of  1867,  164-7  ', 
on  the  growth  of  Prussia,  165  ; 
his  failing  health,  175  ;  his 
promises  in  1870,  195  ;  his 
illness,  200  ;  the  eve  of  war, 
201  ;  departure  for  the  front, 
205  ;  defeats  of  Worth  and 
Forbach,  206  ;  his  message  to 
the  Empress,  206  ;  the  ques- 
tion of  his  return,  210-12  ; 
news  of  Sedan  reaches  Paris, 
221  ;  a  prisoner  at  Wilhelms- 
hohe,  239  ;  opposes  a  cession 
of  territory,  240  ;  his  return 
to  his  family,  250  ;  cordial  re- 
ception in  England,  250  ;  at 
Torquay,  250  ;  attends  the 
thanksgiving  for  the  recovery 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  251  ; 
life  at  Chislehurst,  252  ;  illness 
and  death,  253-5  ;  his  will, 
255  ;  his  property,  256-7  ;  his 
tomb  at  Farnborough,  290 
Napoleon,  Eugene  Louis  (the 
Prince  Imperial) :  his  birth, 
83  ;  the  private  baptism,  84  ; 
tributes  from  poets,  85  ;  gifts 
to  mother  and  child,  87  ; 
baptism  in  Notre  Dame,  87-8  ; 
his  happpy  childhood,  139  ; 
affection  of  his  parents,  139  ; 
his  friends,  140  ;  municipal 
bodies  and,  144  ;  and  Bishop 
Dupanloup,  146  ;    his  delicate 


health,  161  ;  his  mother's 
ambition,  175  ;  prize-giving 
at  the  Lycee  Bonaparte,  175  ; 
visits  the  home  for  blind 
children,  192  ;  departure  for 
the  war,  205  ;  arrival  in 
England,  237  ;  approached 
by  the  spy  Regnier,  241  ;  at 
the  Woolwich  Academy,  253  ; 
at  his  father's  deathbed,  255  ; 
memories  of  him  at  Chisle- 
hurst, 261  ;  his  financial  po- 
sition while  in  England,  262  ; 
his  coming  of  age,  264  ;  at 
Arenenberg,  268  ;  received 
by  Pope  Pius  IX,  268  ;  Car- 
dinal de  Bonnechose  on  the 
Prince,  268,  269  ;  the  ques- 
tion of  his  marriage,  269  ;  his 
journey  to  Zululand,  270  ;  his 
gift  to  Louis  Conneau,  270  ; 
writes  to  Mgr.  Goddard,  272  ; 
his  death,  274  ;  his  funeral  at 
Chislehurst,  274-7  ',  his  tomb 
at  Farnborough,  290 

Napoleon,  Prince  Jerome :  in- 
tended by  his  father  to  marry 
Eugenie,  42  ;  visits  the  bride- 
elect,  49  ;  at  the  civil  wedding, 
59  ;  a  witness  at  Notre  Dame, 
64  ;  after  the  birth  of  the 
Prince  Imperial,  86  ;  and 
Louis  Veuillot,  120  ;  his  mar- 
riage with  Princess  Clotilde, 
121  j  hostility  to  the  Empress, 
159-60  ;  on  the  Emperor's  ill- 
ness, 200  ;  action  after  the 
first  defeats  in  the  war  of 
1870,  210,  231,  254  ;  after  the 
death  of  Napoleon  III,  266, 
267 

Narvacz,  General,  30 

Nassau,  Prince  of,  96 

Nelaton,  Dr.,  200 

Ney,  Edgar,  137,  293 

Nigra,  lc  Chevalier,  173,  228-9 


309 


Index 


Ollivier,  Emile,  176,  209 
Orsini,  attempt  to  murder  the 
Emperor  and  Empress,  109-1 1 
Ossuna,  Duke  of,  29 

Paget,  Sir  James,  253 
Palikao,  General,  209,  223,  225 
Palmerston,    Lord :     on    Napo- 
leon's marriage,  47  ;    and  the 
Crimean  War,  71  ;    dines  at 
Saint  Cloud,  72 
Palmyre,  Mademoiselle,  66,  182 
Panizzi,  Sir  Anthony,  150,  249 
Pasteur,  Louis,  at  Compiegne,i74 
Paterson,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  d.d.,  8 
Paterson,     Robert     (Old     Mor- 
tality) :   a  native  of  Closeburn, 
7  ;  connexion  with  Sir  Thomas 
Kirkpatrick,  7  ;  his  son  settles 
in  America,  7 
Patrizi,  Cardinal,  87-9 
Pepa  (Madame  Pollet),  137-9 
Pierrefonds,  Castle  of,  93,  297 
Pietri,  M.,  210,  229,  261 
Perreyve,  Henri,  on  the  Crimean 

War,  70,  71 
Persigny,  le  Due  de,  175 
Pinard,  Ernest,  173,  263,  270 
Pionori,  attempts  to  murder  Na- 
poleon III,  80 
Pius   IX,   Pope,   and   Napoleon 
III,  57 ;  the  defeat  of  Castel- 
fidardo,     145  ;     receives    the 
Prince  Imperial,  268 
Poeze,  Vicomte  Louis  de  la,  140 
Pourtales,  Comtesse  de,  136,  174 
Puibusque,  M.  de,  on  the  Count- 
ess of  Montijo,  14 

Regnier,  the  spy  of  Metz,  240-5 
Renan,  Ernest,  on  the  Liberal 

Ministry  of  1870,  194 
Ricord,  Dr.,  200 
Rouher,  M.,  156,  177,  253,  261, 

265,  277 
Rowles,  Miss  Emily,  S3 


Saarbruck,  skirmish  at,  206,  271 
Salzburg,  the  Empress  at,  170 
Sand,  George,  on  the  Empress, 

68-9 ;    her   novel,  Malgretout, 

196-8 
Sardou,  Victorien,  227 
Saulcy,  Madame  de,  148 
Sedan,  battle  of,  221 
See,  Dr.  G.,  200 
Segur,  Mgr.  de  :    at  Rome,  57  ; 

his  blindness,  58  ;    "  the  blind 

Apostle,"  89 
Shaw,  Miss,  84,  139 
Sibour,  Mgr.,  63 
Solferino,  battle  of,  125 
Soumain,  General,  225 
Stephanie  of  Baden,  the  Grand 

Duchess,  si 
Swetchine,  Madame,  7 1 ,  98-9 

Tascher  de  la  Pagerie,  Count 
Charles,  62,  63,  99 

Tascher  de  la  Pagerie,  Countess, 
at  Compiegne,  94  ;  organizes 
tableaux  vivants,  129 

Teba  (afterwards  Montijo), 
Count  of,  father  of  the  Em- 
press, 12  ;  fights  under  Na- 
poleon I,  12  ;  his  narrow  ideas, 
13  ;  succeeds  to  his  brother's 
title,  18  ;  his  death,  25  ; 
Washington  Irving  on,  26  ; 
his  portrait,  180 

Thiers,  M.  :  215  ;  declines  Pros- 
per Merimee's  appeal,  215-16 ; 
his  opinion  of  Merimee,  216  ; 
of  the  Empress,  216 

Thompson,  Sir  Henry,  254 

Thyra  of  Denmark,  Princess, 
269 

Trochu,  General,  209,  223-5 

Uhlmann,  281 

Veron,  Dr.,  Merimee's  letter  to, 
24 


310 


Index 


Veuillot,  Louis,  1 18-19,  153,  154, 
275 

Victoria,  Queen  :  and  the  Em- 
press, 1  ;  receives  the  Im- 
perial pair  at  Windsor,  74  ; 
her  affection  for  the  Empress, 
75  ;  visits  Paris,  81  ;  at 
Cherbourg,  11 2-16;  private 
visit  from  the  Empress  at 
Windsor,  150  ;  visits  the  exiled 
sovereigns,  250 ;  at  Chislehurst 
for  the  funeral  of  the  Prince 
Imperial,  277 ;  her  friendship 
in  later  years,  281 

Victoria,  Princess  (afterwards  the 
Empress  Frederick  of  Ger- 
many, jy ,  112 


Vignon,  Madame,  66,  182 
Villafranca,  Peace  of,  126 
Viollet-le-Duc,  M.,  60,  172,  173 
Virot,  Madame,  182-3 

Wagner,  Madame,  108 
Walewski,   Count,  78,   79,    101, 

121 
Walewska,    Countess,    78  ;     her 

love    for   the    Empress,    135  ; 

her  later  years,  135 
William,   King  of  Prussia,    166, 

168-9,  200 
Wolseley,  Lord,  282 
Wood,  Sir  Evelyn  and  Lady,  281 
Worth,  M.,  134,  143,  182,  183 
Worth,  battle  of,  206 


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